District 9 - They are not welcome

QuestionMarkMan

District 9 is an upcoming science fiction movie directed by Neill Blomkamp, better known as the guy who was going to do the Halo movie.

In a nutshell, it's about aliens landing in Africa and becoming slaves/migrant workers in District 9. It just got a big showing at ShoWest where more of the story was revealed

Basically the footage was presented like I imagine the trailer will be. We see South Africans talking to the camera, being interviewed, giving opinions on a segment of their population. Titles flash “They are not welcome,” more talking about how they’re dangerous and filthy and don’t belong here. “They are not accepted,” more unhappy people. Then. “They are not… human.”

We’re shown a shot of an alien ship hanging low in the sky. This caused gasps from the older theater owners behind me. The design wasn’t CLOSE ENCOUNTERS spectacular, but more Ridley Scott working, used ship, but the impact comes from Blomkamp’s ability to integrate effects. It’s bright daylight when we see this ship and it looks just as if you’d look out over the horizon one day and saw this thing in the sky.

It’s established that the aliens have been living among us, known to everybody, immigrants to this world and treated like such. Out of fear they’re essentially given one area to call their own, District 9. I got my first glimpse at the aliens themselves as a government agent serves an eviction notice to one of the aliens.

Again, Blomkamp doesn’t try to show off the effects or give the reveal a hero moment. The door opens and this bipedal creature maybe 8 feet tall walks out to meet the official and when served gets angry and slams the clipboard out of his hands, causing some craziness as he runs, jumping a great distance… his knees are backwards, like a dog’s knee.

Then we change focus a bit and follow a thirty-something reporter as he covers the mass evictions of District 9, saying that he believes the government’s only ever really tolerated these beings because they hoped to gain weapons technology from them and he believes the evictions are a sign of them looking. The guy is doing his report to camera and is showing a little canister with alien writing on it.

He holds it up to his face as he’s giving his report and a black mist sprays out of it onto his face, looking very much like an outtake on a regular news program.

We leave the camera as our POV, but keep the documentary style as the reporter goes about his life… but when he’s eating suddenly his nose starts bleeding. Black blood.

There are many flashes of him in the hospital and then in a (presumably) government research facility. Whatever sprayed into his face has changed him somehow. Not physically, but it’s clear something about his chemistry has changed and the government wants it.

So we get a little action as the dude escapes and flees to District 9, the only place he can find any sort of safe haven. We saw a bunch of aliens together, viewing this guy as an outsider still, I would venture to guess. Their eyes are strangely human, but on a very large scale.

Anyway, while there the reporter witnesses these creatures being abused by the authorities. He says to one of them something along the lines of “I had no idea this was happening to you” as we see police or army rifle butts striking alien faces.

There are also glimpses of the reporter in action, sweating black liquid, and firing a rather large gun at somebody, that doesn’t shoot a projectile it looks like, but rather energy that throws whoever he just shot back. I could be wrong on that, it was just a glimpse, but that was my impression. And yes, we do get the aliens putting on metallic battle suits, but they’re not as big or bulky as the ones in Joberg.

Alex Billington at FirstShowing.net loved the footage and has started comparing it to CLOVERFIELD, which isn’t super far off, but I don’t want the wrong impression. This is very much documentary style, but the whole movie doesn’t seem to be told from a cameraman’s perspective. Their wasn’t nearly as much shaky-cam going on and the production value was a bit higher than the consumer digital camera style of CLOVERFIELD.

Again, it was the grounded aspect I found most appealing. If this movie works or doesn’t, I think it’ll be unique, unlike anything else coming out this summer or this year. It looks to be a serious sci-fi flick with action and spectacle, but also carrying a heart and a brain.

Essentially, it's a spiritual successor to Blomkamp's short film, Alive in Joburg, about an alien species that has populated a South African shanty town, living an even more outcast life than the villagers themselves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNReejO7Zu8&feature=player_embedded

If you're interested in viral stuff, here is the "official" website and here is the blog of George, one of the non-humans.

Otherwise this site actually covers what's been going on with the movie production.

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DrIanMalcolm

This looks really good

Faricazy

YES HELLO THIS IS MY THREAD

dogg put this picture in the OP

http://img.skitch.com/20090402-fi4h1d2nbma7ndh9frecf3aff3.jpg

Grey Ghost

I am excited for this

QuestionMarkMan

Fari what

Faricazy

this

this picture

http://www.mnuspreadslies.com/download/support_nonhuman_wallpaper_800x600.jpg

don't be all acting like you didn't get my pm

curse these bars

Olivaw

Oh man this sounds incredible

I love faux-documentary style stuff and movies with well integrated effects and down to earth science fiction

This is just pushin' all my buttons

World as Myth

not gonna lie

this looks super rad

Mister Longbaugh

i like this guy's short movies. the one about the robot cops in south africa was pretty good.

Blake T

First impressions sounds like it will be ham fisted attempt at racism in society.

Yes lets interview people about minorities in a country that support apartheid for a good 20 years, I am not making a social comment at all.

World as Myth

Blaket wrote: »

First impressions sounds like it will be ham fisted attempt at racism in society.

Yes lets interview people about minorities in a country that apartheid.

this sounds incomplete

please go on

Faricazy

blake watch his other stuff

the man is dedicated to making Cool Looking Shit (tm)

QuestionMarkMan

The film is a thinly veiled social commentary on the present day anti-Zimbabwean xenophobia found in many parts of South Africa, as well as the apartheid past of South Africa

Synthetic Orange

Hey....

This isnt Alien Nation at all!

Calamity Jane

man, shoulda made that halo movie

Gafoto

Looks very interesting. I can see this becoming a big deal.

Calamity Jane

Anjin-San wrote: »

man, shoulda made that halo movie

seriously

it'd be the first time something out of that camp had a theme outside of "DUTY"

QuestionMarkMan

Now maybe this one will blow people’s minds (like it seemed to do for the middle-aged theater owner lady behind me who gasped throughout the whole run of footage) and somebody will realize that a HALO series of films handled with this attention to effects integration and style could be a major franchise and everybody in the world will hold hands and sing the Coke song. I can only hope.

Blake T

Anjin-San wrote: »

man, shoulda made that halo movie

It would have been exactly the same, not welcoming aliens.

Killin' them all.

Blake T

World as Myth wrote: »

Blaket wrote: »

First impressions sounds like it will be ham fisted attempt at racism in society.

Yes lets interview people about minorities in a country that supported apartheid for a good 20 years, I am not making a social comment at all.

this sounds incomplete

please go on

Fine, I'll read my posts and even edit them so they make coherent sentences.

Jesus WaM you are such a ball buster.

Calamity Jane

oh blake

you are a paradox of a man

DrIanMalcolm

Another description of the footage

Comingsoon.net wrote:

The District 9 footage opens with an aerial shot of slums that look not unlike the Brazilian favelas from City of God with various people being interviewed as they talk negatively about immigrants (seemingly) with taglines stating "They are not accepted" and "They are not welcome." The footage, mostly shot using handheld camera to make it look like a documentary ala Cloverfield or The Blair Witch Project, continues for a few minutes before it cuts to a shot of an enormous alien spacecraft flanked by helicopters hovering over the slums and the next title card reads, "They are not human." ("Human" is colored in red for added effect.)

A voiceover tells us that this slum is District 9, an area where aliens have been separated from the humans after arriving there 28 years ago, since people are still scared and can't trust them. We then meet Sharlto Copley's Wikus, a government agent with the "MNU" (Multi-National United) traveling into District 9 with a number of armed men. He knocks on one door which has a piece of paper stapled to it, the door opens and there's a large insectoid alien creature with a face that looks somewhat "Predator"-like. Lucas tells him that he has to leave. Yes, apparently, that's an eviction notice on the door, but the creature is not too happy about it, squealing at the men then leaping up to the rooftops.

A little later, Wikus is showing some alien weapons to the cameraman filming him and among them, he finds a canister with alien writing on it, something he's never seen before. He doesn't think it's a weapon, but he then accidentally sprays himself in the face with a black substance from within the can. He's doing another on-camera interview later and black stuff starts coming from out of his nostrils, and we learn from the voiceover that he's become infected by alien biotechnology, as government scientists begin to study and probe Wikus, knowing that the biotech within him is an invaluable discovery. They seem to be less concerned with his survival, as they are about harvesting from him anything they can.

We then start to see Wikus changing and evolving into something more like an alien, and he is talking face-to-face with another older-looking alien creature about how he's starting to see first-hand how they've been treated and he's going to do something about it. These aliens look very cool, by the way, CG for sure, but more insect-like than the typical "little grey men."

The latter part of the footage involves a bit of action, more shots of that giant alien spacecraft and way too much to keep track of, but it was all cut together using familiar music from Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (Godspeed You Black Emperor's "East Hastings"). In fact, that's probably another viable comparison that could be brought to the mix, as this seems like a similarly intelligent twist on an overused sci-fi genre that deals realistically with how humans might interact with aliens among us. Wikus looks to be our eyes into this world, a human who suddenly finds himself changing into an alien and discovering what they've had to face all those years. The footage ends hauntingly with him saying, "I want everyone to learn from what's happened here.

Donovan Puppyfucker

That blog is actually fairly cool. There's some avatars and wallpapers there too. http://www.mnuspreadslies.com/download.php

Blake T

Typing shit so it makes sense is a lot of bother.

I have no idea why most of you bother.

From now on I'm just going to stop sentences whenever I

Faricazy

DrIanMalcolm wrote: »

The latter part of the footage involves a bit of action, more shots of that giant alien spacecraft and way too much to keep track of, but it was all cut together using familiar music from Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (Godspeed You Black Emperor's "East Hastings").

[/quote]oh jesus

Hybrid

Man this looks so cool. I'ma keep an eye out for it.

Olivaw

God I'm just watching everything this guy has done and it's all really well done and totally cool looking shit

Sure it's a thinly veiled social commentary

But so is a lot of science fiction

I for one am totally on board for some Cool Looking Shit

DrIanMalcolm

This is gonna be so much better than MiB III

QuestionMarkMan

Here's his Halo: Landfall short for those interested
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUcreY0X33k

Mister Longbaugh

hm, a south african director directing a movie set in south africa. hmmmm.

Blake T

DrIanMalcolm wrote: »

This is gonna be so much better than MiB III

Are they actually making a men in black three?

I am not sure exactly how appalled I should be, I know I should be appalled, I just haven't decided by how much yet.

DrIanMalcolm

Blaket wrote: »

DrIanMalcolm wrote: »

This is gonna be so much better than MiB III

Are they actually making a men in black three?

I am not sure exactly how appalled I should be, I know I should be appalled, I just haven't decided by how much yet.

Yeah it was just announced yesterday

Blake T

Oh sweet.

The only problem with shit like that is that a news annoucement like that is 100% believable.

Donovan Puppyfucker

Mister Longbaugh wrote: »

hm, a south african director directing a movie set in south africa. hmmmm.

Can't beat a locals hometown knowledge and insiders perspective?

Macro9

So they mastered interstellar space travel and immigrated to South Africa and were forced to live in slums?

Erios

Macro9 wrote: »

So they mastered interstellar space travel and immigrated to South Africa and were forced to live in slums?

My contention exactly.

Mister Longbaugh

maybe there will be some sort of plot explanation on that point. there's a thought.

World as Myth

maybe that is one of the most fascinating mysterious parts of the plot

Erios

Mister Longbaugh wrote: »

maybe there will be some sort of plot explanation on that point. there's a thought.

They ran out of Dilithium crystals?

Blake T

World as Myth wrote: »

maybe that is one of the most fascinating mysterious parts of the plot

Or maybe their spaceship ran out of gas and one dude is walking to the nearest space-gas-station and it's just really far away.