It’s been over five years since director Neill Blomkamp last lit up the silver screen, and 12 years since the alien refugee known as Christopher promised to return in three years at the end of sci-fi action masterclass District 9. That’s a lot of waiting, but finally, Blomkamp has teased the arrival of long, long awaited sequel, District 10, with the filmmaker confirming on social media that he is currently working on the script.
District 10 screenplay also being written by @sharlto@territatchell and I. Its coming…
— Neill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) February 26, 2021
“District 10 screenplay also being written by @sharlto @territatchell and I. Its coming…”
Neill Blomkamp burst onto the scene with relish back in 2009, releasing the social commentary sci-fi District 9. Utilizing found footage in the form of fictional interviews, news footage, and video from surveillance cameras, as well as more traditional sequences, District 9 begins in an alternate 1982, during which a giant extra-terrestrial spaceship arrives and hovers over the South African city of Johannesburg. A population of sick and malnourished insectoid aliens are discovered living in squalor inside the ship, and are subsequently moved and confined to an internment camp, District 9.
Picking up twenty years later, with the ship still casting a shadow over the city, the government decides to relocate the aliens to another camp, resulting in one of the aliens, known as Christopher Johnson, crossing paths with bureaucrat Wikus van der Merwe, who is about to find himself the target of a nationwide manhunt. Written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, District 9 stars Sharlto Copley, David James, and Jason Cope as Christopher Johnson.
District 9 does what all great science fiction hopes to do, comment on real world issues through a fictional lens. Exploring the themes of humanity, xenophobia and social segregation and inspired by events in Cape Town’s District Six, during the apartheid era, District 9 put Blomkamp on the map and remains an achievement that he has sadly not quite managed to live up to since.
The movie was a huge success both critically and financially, and with the finale of District 9 clearly setting up a sequel, audiences have been wondering for years if District 10 would ever materialise. Well, it sounds like it might finally be happening, with Blomkamp bringing back the first movie’s Terri Tatchell and adding lead actor Sharlto Copley to the script writing roster.
Neill Blomkamp has been teasing another installment in the series since the release of District 9 way back when, at one point even suggesting that the project could be a prequel. In 2013 Blomkamp said of a follow-up, “I really want to make a District 9 sequel. I genuinely do. The problem is I have a bunch of ideas and stuff that I want to make,” adding that “[he] want[s] to make District 10 at some point”.
Blomkamp has been signed on to multiple projects over the years, including sequel to both Alien and RoboCop. With those falling through, it looks like Blomkamp has instead decided to return to the world that started it all for him, and finally give audiences the sequel they really want. This comes to us courtesy of Neil Blomkamp’s official Twitter account.