A few years back there was a great deal of excited chatter surrounding the proposed Halo movie and its connection to Peter Jackson who was riding a career high after his masterful turn as director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

As it turned out though, Jackson wasn’t signed on to direct Halo, but rather had been attached as executive producer. The man chosen to helm the film was an unknown South African visual effects wizard named Neill Blomkamp. Halo was slated to be Blomkamp’s feature-length directorial debut and at the time I thought it a bit odd to entrust such a large project to a man whose only previous experience in the director’s chair was a six-minute short film called “Alive In Joburg”.

Shortly after the announcement I read an interview with Blomkamp that began to change my mind. In it he talked about his desire to make an original movie that captured the reality of the world and the inhabitants on it. When asked about Master Chief possibly being created in CGI Blomkamp said:

“Well, the film has to have a feeling of reality, and so that means that I want to keep him real as much as I can, there is a necessity for him to become cg in sequences where a guy in a suit would just not work, but for the most part I am aiming for real.”

Having an effects guy tell you that he’s more concerned with realism than flashy visuals is a fairly unusual statement. Still, I wasn’t totally convinced of his sincerity until I got the opportunity to watch the aforementioned Alive In Joburg for myself, which you can view in its entirety below.



After viewing that piece and seeing how well he blended the fantastic elements with the grit of the real world I was a believer. The piece had a documentary feel to it, but it blended the aliens in to the point where I didn’t blink twice upon seeing them in the frame. Even the robotic suits, which stood out a bit more obviously, seemed like they were in the world rather than pasted on top of it.

Blomkamp had the right vision and visual sense to make Halo an incredible movie, but unfortunately he never got the chance.

The years that followed that buzz-filled summer of ’06 saw Halo’s planned production off and on again more times than a prom dress. At last count the film was supposedly on temporary hiatus and set to emerge sometime in 2012, but by most accounts even that far-away date is shaky at best.

So what became of poor Neill Blomkamp?

He and Jackson must’ve hit it off pretty well because the two have paired up to turn Blomkamp’s Alive In Joburg into a full-length feature called District 9.

The movie is set to come out in August of this year and you can get a sneak peak from the trailer below.



I suppose the lesson to be learned here is that forging ahead with your dreams in the face of adversity really can make them come true.

Staying friendly with Peter Jackson probably doesn’t hurt either.

-Quoth the Raven

__________________________________________________________________________________________