Video interview -- Neil Blomkamp (District 9)

Today's interview is with first-time screenwriter and director Neil Blomkamp whose debut effort is the much anticipated -- at least by me -- District 9. Blomkamp, who co-wrote the screenplay with Terri Tatchell, has a background in 3D animation and visual effects, which clearly came in handy with District 9. Here's the interview:



Another interview with Blomkamp, that can't be embedded, is here.

And then an interview with one of the film's producers Peter Jackson:



Reviews of District 9 have been strong:

Daily Variety (Justin Chang)

Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt)

Los Angeles Times (Betsy Sharkey)

New York Times (A.O. Scott)

Here is just a taste of the positive reactions to the movie -- an from A.O. Scott:

For decades — at least since Orson Welles scared the daylights out of radio listeners with “War of the Worlds” back in 1938 — the public has embraced the terrifying prospect of alien invasion. But what if, notwithstanding the occasional humanist fable like “E.T.,” all those movies and television programs have been inculcating a potentially toxic form of interplanetary prejudice?

“District 9,” a smart, swift new film from the South African director Neill Blomkamp (who now lives in Canada and who wrote the screenplay with Terri Tatchell), raises such a possibility in part by inverting an axiomatic question of the U.F.O. genre. In place of the usual mystery — what are they going to do to us? — this movie poses a different kind of hypothetical puzzle. What would we do to them? The answer, derived from intimate knowledge of how we have treated one another for centuries, is not pretty.

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But I’m getting ahead of the story, and perhaps overselling the allegory. Not that the metaphorical resonances of “District 9” aren’t rich and thought provoking. But the filmmakers don’t draw them out with a heavy, didactic hand. Instead, in the best B-movie tradition, they embed their ideas in an ingenious, propulsive and suspenseful genre entertainment, one that respects your intelligence even as it makes your eyes pop (and, once in a while, your stomach turn).

Come on, folks.
It's a smart, well-made movie that has an actual story at its core.
And it appeals to adults.
Go see District 9 this weekend.

UPDATE: District 9 does an estimate $14.2M at the box office on Friday night. On target for $30M+ opening weekend. With a production budget around $30M, it looks like the movie is on its way to being a financial success. Good news!

UPDATE #2: Daily Variety reporting the movie will do $37M at the box office in its opening weekend.