Are We Living a Neil Blomkamp Film?

Hear me out, or at least keep the horse laughs down enough so others can hear me out.

Neil Blomkamp was born in Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa, in the time of apartheid. He is now a citizen of Canada, based in Vancouver, and he has built a career in animation and special effects that branched off into feature films ten years ago. His work, first in shorts and later in features, shows the influence of apartheid.

Blomkamp’s first outing in big budget movie making was District 9, a science fiction thought piece on racism and xenophobia. In District 9, aliens came in peace, only to find themselves imprisoned in an area quickly turned into a slum by neglect as the earthlings attach to the aliens the stereotypes that typically adhere to slum dwellers. Blomkamp wrote the screenplay of the inevitable escape attempt with his wife, Terri Tatchell.

“Big budget” is a relative term, and Blomkamp was no doubt able to put together the $30 million District 9 cost to shoot because of his position as a protégé of Peter Jackson, the man who may have turned New Zealand permanently into Middle Earth.

When this “small” independent film earned costs of production back in the first weekend and racked up four 2010 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, it was safe to say Blomkamp’s next outing would be on more than a wing and a prayer.

Next came Elysium, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster and released by TriStar. When a relative rookie like Blomkamp…