Neill Blomkamp was the centre (and continues to be the centre) of a lot of debate (a debate I won by the way… damn I can be a snarky bastard can’t I?) when it was announced the he… a guy who has not only never directed a movie before in his life… he had never actually worked on ANY movie in ANY capacity (not an assistant director, not a cinematographer, not a coffee boy) in his life (aside from being an animator on 3000 Miles to Graceland, but even then he was never on set), was being handed the reign to direct Halo. It was just another sign that the Halo project was doomed… and sure enough, it died.
My argument was that Blomkamp should be given the opportunity to direct something a bit smaller first before dumping a huge a major tentpole project like Halo on him. I’m sorry… but the dancing car commercial doesn’t mean he can direct a major blockbuster with… you know… actors and dialog and story. Give he a chance at something else first… THEN maybe hand him something bigger.
Well… with District 9 he’ll have that chance… sort of. The movie is obviously shot in a fake documentary style which I’m VERY curious to see… but even if it turns out well it doesn’t actually give us any indication if he can handle real narrative or not. Whatever, I’m still looking forward to this.
As you know, this trailer came out a few days ago… but now it has a version where you can actually see what the aliens are saying. Check it out:
