Neill Blomkamp’s Next After Elysium Could Be Sci-Fi Comedy Chappie
Neill Blomkamp exploded all over the mainstream in 2009 with his alien apartheid film District 9. After an impressive showing at Comic Con, his follow-up—the sci-fi actioner Elysium, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster—has quickly become one of the most anticipated movies of 2013. Even though Elysium doesn’t drop until March next year, the South African director has already turned his mind towards future projects.
Elysium director Neill Blomkamp
Talking with The Playlist, Blomkamp pondered what could be next, including the potential for reuniting with his District 9 producer, Peter Jackson. Discussing that possibility, Blomkamp said:
The obvious place to work with him again…is on District 10 or District 8, whatever you wanna call it, however, I’m not sure I’m making that film. It would be cool, but these films take two or three years to make, and the investments are so extreme, you can’t accurately predict where you’ll be a few years from now, I believe. If you’re not creatively invested in it, you’re making a mistake, and that creative investment happens day to day. So I don’t know when that feeling for a District Whatever film happens.
Even though a District 9 sequel isn’t imminent, it sounds like the door is still open for a return to that world in the future. More immediately on Blomkamp’s horizons is a sci-fi comedy called Chappie, a project which again reteams him with a previous collaborator, his District 9 co-writer, Terri Tatchell.
I wrote Elysium on my own, but I wrote Chappie with Terri [Tatchell], that was written at the same time. It’s like a fundamentally more simple story, a comedy, a heartfelt story, in a science fiction setting. And it’s fucking hilarious, it’s a really cool film. I can say that with confidence… It’s a smaller film, a more esoteric one.
While it sounds like Chappie is likely next on the docket, don’t expect it anytime too soon. The director also has ideas for a new horror movie, and for a comedy, they are less developed than Chappie, so they are likely further down the pike. The director also admits that he’d like to take a little time off. If Blomkamp keeps making movies as good as District 9, he can take all the time he needs. In the meantime we’ll just have to get ourselves all worked into a tizzy over Elysium.
