|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2009 Flaming Dog Media, LLC. All rights reserved. |
|
|
DISTRICT 9 - the new underclass |
|
|
A Review and Notes from the Q&A with Director Neill Blomkemp & Actor Sharlto Copley Thanks to Ain’t It Cool News
and Harry Knowles not having a clue who I am other than a name in the
occasional email for screenings like this, I was able to get on the list
for the DISTRICT 9 event here in DISTRICT 9 is a contemporary
science fiction film about the alien slums of With rising tension between the human population and the aliens, MNU, a multi-national company with an interest in alien weapons that can only by used by the aliens themselves, is appointed to move the aliens from the slum that has grown in the shadow of their still orbiting ship out of the city. One point eight million aliens are living in the slum known as District 9. Wikus Van De Merwe works as a mid-level, middle management type at MNU, and is assigned as the field officer in charge of distributing eviction notices to the aliens, who have been assigned human names and have barcode takes on their skulls. While in the slums, Wikus is inadvertently exposed to a kind of biotechnology. And his whole world goes to hell because of it, over the course of three days. His only ally is an alien named
Christopher Johnson, who needed the biotechnology to return to the ship
hovering above The film is shot documentary style at the beginning, mixing news reports with interviews and security camera footage. It’s not until the MNU convoy enters District 9 that the movie takes a more cinematic approach, but even then, the documentary style is utilized to show Wikus’s progression through the district. I cannot stress enough how much I enjoyed this movie. DISTRICT 9 is easily one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. Not just among the science fiction genre films, but among every movie I’ve seen since January. As for the presentation of the movie, for those who may be curious about the Alamo Drafthouse – South Lamar’s pre-show included trailers for IT CAME WITHOUT WARNING, BLOOD BATH, NO BLADE OF GRASS, YOR – HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE, a SPACE GHOST animated short, MUTINY IN OUTER SPACE, GOLIATH AND THE VAMPIRES, THE WILD WILD PLANET, and LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND THE MONSTERS. Harry Knowles rolled up to the front of the theater to introduce the film, saying that everyone in the theater must be night owls, because the majority of emails he got were between two and six in the morning. He then told us that we would be up late after the movie tonight, talking about it. After the movie, director Neill
Blomkemp & actor Sharlto Copley joined Harry Knowles at the front of
the theater for the post-film Q & A.
From the start, Neill said that he wanted the owner of the Alamo
Drafthouse to know that he needs to open one in Sharlto was chosen because of his ability to improvise, and think quickly on his feet. He was used for the audition tape that was presented to Peter Jackson, and Peter liked the work he did, so he was cast as Wikus Van De Merwe for the film. When asked about his work prior DISTRICT 9, Sharlto said that he had a history of working behind the scenes, usually in visual effects, but also as a director and producer. He also said that he played the role of the sniper in ALIVE IN JOBURG, and made the comment that it was a much different role from Wikus. Neill’s next project is a science fiction film set on another planet. He did say that he wants to make a sequel to DISTRICT 9, if it does well enough at the box office to warrant one. He also said that he became interested in working in film after seeing Ridley Scott’s ALIEN, but he’s inspired by James Cameron’s ALIENS. “Every time I see that movie,” he said, “I want to go out and direct something!” When asked how it was pitched to Peter Jackson, Neill explained that he used his short film, ALIVE IN JOBURG, and said he wanted to expand on the idea of alien slums in the South African city. Neill’s idea for the alien population, part of which was explained in the movie, was that they would be the “worker drones,” since it was an insect-like species. The hierarchy would have died out before the drones were brought down to the surface. Aside from the drones, two other alien species were designed, but only one is scene, in a cockfight-type past time between the aliens and Nigerian gangsters. As Neill put it, the cockfight scene is one of his favorite parts of the movie because it’s like “bad STAR WARS.” Harry Knowles asked, since the aliens landed in 1982, and apartheid didn’t end until 1990, how would that have worked in the world of DISTRICT 9. Neill’s answer was actually a good one, saying that the aliens became the new lowest part of the totem pole, raising every human up, above the new lower class. In the movie, humans are able to
understand the aliens, and the aliens are able to understand humans,
despite the language barrier. The
alien language is subtitled onscreen, since neither race can actually
speak the other’s language. When
asked about this, Neill said that In the film, the aliens eat cat
food. When asked about that,
Neill said that he wanted something specific for them to eat, a favorite
food. And, as it turns out,
his co-writer, Terri Tatchell, uses cat food as a lure when fishing for
prawns, and since “Prawn” is a derogatory term used for the alien
population in District 9, it seemed like a good idea. He then went on to
tell the audience how he and Sharlto were in And then I got to ask my question. What I was wondering about was if they used more than one actor for the role of the aliens, and, if so, if the group worked together to figure out how the aliens would move. Neill answered, first by pointing out that there aren’t a lot of “group” scenes for the aliens, and then went out to say that for ninety percent of the film, it’s an actor named Jason Cope, who plays Christopher Johnson. He and Sharlto would film their scenes together, and then they used trace animation to replace Jason with Christopher. Jason was also used for the individual aliens when seen. Other than that, it was six guys for the few group shots, especially in the news footage of the initial contact aboard the ship, and they were multiplied to show the alien population. Neill ended his answer with, “…and I used a flux capacitor, as well.” The next question after mine confirmed that there isn’t a toy line for the movie. That, of course, led to Neill asking the audience, “Did G.I. JOE come out today? And you guys chose this?!” In the movie, there are signs about “non-human loitering” but the viral promotions in theaters specify “This Theater for Humans Only” or “This Restroom for Humans Only” while the poster pictures District 9 with the ship hovering above it, and a sign that says “No Humans Allowed”. When asked about it, Neill said that wasn’t his idea, it was all Sony marketing for the movie. There was a story about a
massive, nine hundred pound pig carcass that was used for the climatic
fight scene. Apparently this
huge pig body was flown in, by helicopter, to the filming location in Harry begged for a YouTube clip of the nine hundred pound pig death. When asked about the local versus global aspect of the aliens, since most of the news footage in the movie is “local” news coverage, Neill explained that the alien ship’s arrival would have been a spike in society, and would have been covered globally, as explained in the movie. But, in the aftermath, that spike would eventually flatline, as interest went down. And Neill was most interested in the flatline that followed the spike of the aliens’ arrival. Neill admitted that the script had “quite a few” drafts, primary filming was done on location in June and July of 2008, with reshoots in December 2008. The movie mentions interspecies prostitution, and part of MNU’s campaign to get the public to turn Wikus in is to claim he had prolonged sexual contact with the aliens. When asked about how sex would happen between humans and the aliens, Sharlto gave an in-character answer, “How dare you ask such a thing, there are people here, you know. It’s thinking like that, that’s how perversions start!” Neill said that the social
commentary in the film was inspired by his childhood in When talking about the MPAA and if anything was cut from the film, Neill said, “Most of what I wanted ended up onscreen.” And that the “hit ratio was higher than expected.” He told Harry Knowles, “We were always going to be an ‘R’ movie, there isn’t a version out there that would have been NC-17.” Something that surprised me
during the Q & A, aside from the awesome answer to my question, was
that the only shacks built for the film were Christopher Johnson’s and
the Nigerian gang leader’s headquarters.
The rest of the District 9 slum was an actual slum in But, as Neill said, the people
were happy to see a “ And, in case the cat food story wasn’t gross enough, Neill said that the goat head chopped in half and grilled seen in the film is an actual South African dish called a “smiley.” Finally, the last question had to be asked, and a prize was given for it. Had I only known, I’d have kept my hand down longer. The prize was the final sketch of the alien ship, signed by Peter Jackson, and Harry Knowles got Neill and Sharlto to agree to add their signatures to it, as well. The question was about the alien design, and Neill went off about how he wanted to make an “un-Hollywood” alien, and it drove him mad to see an insect with human eyes. But, to have empathy and for audiences to connect with the character, some humanity was needed, so the aliens have human eyes and human facial cheekbones. DISTRICT 9 started just after eight o’clock, and ended just before ten. The Q & A lasted about an hour. Still not quite up to last summer’s event for THE INCREDIBLE HULK, but all kinds of awesome, all the same. Tom Sharp
|
|
