It looks like “District 9” director Neill Blomkamp is going to have us headed into our Thanksgiving weekend scouring the internet for more clues and details about his latest, secretive effort.
A reader tipped off /Film to a mysterious video credited to Blomkamp among the digital pages of the latest issue of Wired for the iPad. Not much is given away — the title of the clip is “Video By: Neill Blomkamp” — and the one-minute teaser shows two guys who discover a mutant pig-looking thing by the side of the road with some kind of stamp or brand on its side which reads “18.12 AGM Heartland Pat Pend USA” and “US Inspected And Approved.”
/Film did some digging and discovered that a Beverly Hills-based company named Sable Productions Ltd. trademarked “AGM Heartland” (which we presume is the title) on October 18th 2010 for “entertainment services by way of an online website with video, audio and textual content and images featuring characters and storylines about a fictional genetic engineering company that produces genetically engineered and altered organisms.” This pretty much seems to indicate that whatever this project is, it’s web-based instead of a teaser for a feature film.
Last we heard, Blomkamp was lining up “Elysium” as his next big screen project. An original screenplay he wrote himself, Blomkamp has previously described the film as “sci-fi, horror, something around there” and was “pretty sure it’s set on another planet” and “way in the future.” He also added that the film will explore “many sociopolitical ideas that interest [him]” with the ideas “wrapped up inside something that is like a Hollywood action film.”
Certainly, grafting sociopolitical themes onto his work isn’t something new but it looks like he’s knocking out something small before working on “Elysium” (which was supposed to start this fall though word has been quiet). Or maybe “AGM Heartland” is part of something bigger for his next film? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
