DISTRICT 9 MOVIE - ALIENS ARE AMONG US

District 9 looks like it’s going to be a box-office winner, not least because here we have a sci-fi movie that’s set somewhere other than anytown, USA. In this case, South African-born director Neill Blomkamp takes us to his homeland, where aliens have been among us for decades. And now nasty things are happening...

The video clip here is of a 2005 Blomkamp short, which served as the starter seed for District 9, and it employs typical Blomkamp imagery, with documentary-style hand-held shots, coupled with unobtrusive cgi effects. Blomkamp has quite a track record - he’s directed three shorts set in the XBox Halo universe, and was hired to direct the full-length feature, presently on hold. Let’s hope the movie goes on full-burn very soon; meantime his Halo commercials won awards at Cannes last year, and deservedly so.

Neill is hugely talented - he’s produced many commercials (including Citroen’s excellent transforming C4) and original visions to illustrate the future of aviation and of the automobile. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.