Though both are distinctly South African, the Sony Pictures release District 9 and its director Neill Blomkamp have history in Canada. Already generating huge buzz and rave reviews, the sci-fi melding of action, political satire and poignant drama opened Aug. 14 on 3,000 screens across North America – building on an earlier project at Toronto’s Spy Films and Blomkamp’s stint as an effects artist at Rainmaker.
District 9, the story of ghettoized and exploited refugee aliens in a futuristic South Africa, has its roots at Spy Films where Blomkamp, who is also repped by the shop, made the 2005 short film, Alive in Joburg upon which the feature is based.
‘I wanted to see science fiction set in South Africa, the idea of it drove me nuts,’ says Blomkamp. He asked Spy president Carlo Trulli to finance the short.
‘Carlo really needs to be commended for putting up the money,’ says Blomkamp. ‘I didn’t have any marketing or plans in mind for Joburg. I did it for the sake of creativity.’
The six-minute short plays as documentary with interviews highlighting the tension between the Johannesburg population and alien visitors.
‘At the time I thought, what a brilliant way to deliver a message about apartheid as an allegory, in this sci-fi way’ recalls Trulli. ‘Neill’s a genius when it comes to visual effects and he loves the world of sci-fi. I think he wants to create intriguing stories that have a message and tell them in unique ways.’
Blomkamp, who immigrated to Vancouver from South Africa at 18, joined Rainmaker in 1998 as an effects artist. In 2002, along with four other partners, he launched The Embassy Visual Effects, while also beginning to pursue his directing career.
Nancy Mott, executive producer at CIS Vancouver, worked with Blomkamp at both Rainmaker and The Embassy and recalls that he was always working on his own projects on the side.
‘Neill would have the staff in stitches watching the hysterically funny short films he unveiled,’ she says. ‘You knew he was so creative, that he had things in his head he had to get out, very unconventional things. As a 3D artist with an eye for direction, Neill’s creative mind moved faster than the speed of light.’
Blomkamp’s directing career was jumpstarted when Joburg caught the attention of director Peter Jackson, which led to his being handpicked to direct the ill-fated adaptation of the Halo video game, which eventually fell apart over studio squabbles.
‘Jackson told me not to pack up and go back to Vancouver, that we should make a lower-budget project we can control,’ says Blomkamp. ‘Fran Walsh [Jackson’s coproducer] said, ‘Why don’t you take Alive in Joburg and make it a film?’ She really liked the short. So literally the next day after Halo fell apart I was turning Joburg into a feature.’
District 9 was filmed in Johannesburg and produced by Jackson’s New Zealand-based Wingnut Films. Originally Jackson’s Weta Visual Effects was going to do all the CGI on District 9, but the company’s busy workload made this impossible. So Blomkamp brought the effects back to Vanacouver, with Image Engine creating 311 VFX shots (primarily alien sequences), The Embassy doing 120 (including the alien weapon), and Zoic Studios providing 30.
Image Engine’s repulsive, insect-like aliens are the largest number of creature shots ever completed in Vancouver.
‘It was a leap of faith on my part, but I felt they could do it,’ says Blomkamp. ‘And the truth is they exceeded my expectations, they threw it out of the park. It shows they are A-list and at the top of their game.’
Image Engine visual effects producer Shawn Walsh calls Blomkamp ‘a visionary director.’
‘There is a lot of generous detail in his descriptions and yet at a certain point he turned it over to us and trusted us to bring something to the table and was interested in what we had to offer,’ he says.
The Embassy president Winston Helgason is just as complimentary.
‘Neill has a really clear creative vision of what he wants to achieve and never deviates from that,’ he says. ‘His talent as an animator really helps him visually as a director and he can clearly convey what he wants because he has such a strong understanding having done effects himself.’