Tag: apartheid

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Aliens Among Us: District 9 Soars to Box Office Glory!

An aliens-among-us story by a first time director has topped the American box office, raking in US$37 million this past weekend!

Helmed by 29-year-old South African born director, Niell Blomkamp, District 9 has no big name stars – in fact, the lead actor (Sharlto Copley) had never acted in a movie before – but that didn’t prevent the film from outgrossing G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra by a whopping USD 14.5 million! District 9 is no slouch in the ratings either, scoring a solid 88% at Rotten Tomatoes.

We South Africans have to wait a bit longer to watch Wikus Van De Merwe and “prawn” friend Christopher Johnson taking the fight to the seedy MNU corporation. District 9 releases officially in local theatres on August 28th, but word is that Joburg will see a premiere screening this Wednesday, August 19th, at the Zone in Rosebank – full details are available at SterKinekor. Canal Walk in Cape Town might be hosting a premiere too, but no details have surfaced as yet. We’ll keep you posted though.

[ Sources: 1 | 2 | 3 ]

BONUS: Vanity Fair had a chat with Sharlto Copley about working on District 9. Read the Q&A HERE.

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District 9: Extended Featurette

In case you missed our last post on District 9, here’s an extended featurette where the producer, director, and actors discuss the upcoming sci-fi flick.

District 9 will be invading South African shores on Friday, August 28th according to SterKinekor.

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Cautionary Tales Movies Video Clips

District 9: For Humans Only

I was speaking to a bunch of friends last night and none of them had heard of District 9. That was not the answer I was looking for, considering I didn’t know what the frack it was either. Until now.

Produced by Peter Jackson, District 9 is the directorial debut of Jackson’s protege and South African born Neill Blomkamp. In this mysterious sci-fi flick, it seems that Johannesburg, South Africa has become a haven for refugees, both human and extraterrestrial.

Shot in a faux-documentary style, District 9 is slated for release August 14th, 2009. Check out the uncensored trailer below or watch it in HD at Apple.com.

From the teaser, I assume that the big-ass alien ship has run out of petrol and can’t leave the earth, so it begs the question – why would the visitors from outer space be forced to live in a shantytown when they could stay aboard their ship? There must be more to this and I’m very interested to find out.

The official website d-9.com with its media-rich interface allows you to either enter the human side or non-human side and provides a lot of information, most of which I don’t understand or know what to do with. I chose the non-human side and entered an obviously false alien ID. Alarm bells started ringing, things were scanned, I was told my connection was being monitored, and got redirected to some company called Multi-National United. The plot thickens…

[via Digital Citizen]