For Humans Only.


All those astute internet dwellers out there who spend more time clicking ‘Stumble’ than engaging in human interaction may have came across a rather interesting viral video that would lead you to believe that aliens are living among us.

Well not really, but that’s exactly what the marketing team behind the Peter Jackson produced District 9 (or D-9 as it is often referred) want you to believe.

Based on his own short film ‘Alive in Joburg’ director Neill Blomkamp brings his story of alien discrimination to the big screen. The plot? Aliens crashed landed on earth some 20 years ago in Johannesburg and have since been living as second-class citizens in South Africa’s slums. Friction with the locals results in the aliens being moved into camps and things coming to a head.

As of yet, Blomkamp is keeping his cards pretty close to his chest but the South African born director gives us an insight of what we should expect “I was a science-fiction nut when I was growing up in Johannesburg. I just wanted to see that kind of imagery in a third world setting with the complex political history of South Africa”.

Backed by Middle-Earth’s own Peter Jackson, 30-year-old Blomkamp was originally planning to tackle the big screen adaptation of Halo but as that fell through the duo decided to focus on D-9 instead.

And by the sounds of it the ‘less is more’ marketing technique has got Jackson excited “It's fun watching people trying to compare this to other films. Is it like 28 Days Later? No, it's not. Is it like Cloverfield? No.”

Whatever the case District 9 looks to be more than your average science fiction film. Bringing in the subject of social class to a pseudo-documentary alien film sounds like an interesting concept. Expect to hear more from this film in the coming months.

Check out the most recent trailer below. There are actually two versions of this and although shot for shot they are the same, their messages are very different. Head over to www.D-9.com for more info.

District 9 is released on 4th September 2009.


Trailer 1



Trailer 2

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