In a recent Wired profile of "Elysium" director Neill Blomkamp, it was revealed that the South African filmmaker has written an 18-page treatment for "District 10," a sequel to his hit 2009 sci-fi allegory "District 9," which not only made a whole bunch of money but was nominated for four Academy Awards the following year, including Best Picture. But before you get too excited about revisiting the world of Prawns, it seems like the project is still far from seeing the light of day.
While talking to Entertainment Weekly, Blomkamp, who turned down a chance to direct one of Disney's new "Star Wars" movies, admitted that he's not in the right frame of mind for spawning a franchise right now. "The problem is that I have so many ideas for films that I feel like I'm not going to have enough time to do them all before I die. If I don't get a chance to at least try making some of those first, I'll feel like I've let myself down," Blomkamp said, somewhat fatalistically.
Not that he's ruled out the possibility of returning to one of his own projects. "The world of 'District 9' has so many hilarious, bizarre, interesting, thematically linked things, and there are multiple stories to tell in that world that are all legitimate," the director told EW.
The problem, of course, is getting around to it. Blomkamp already has the mid-budget sci-fi oddity "Chappie" (starring his regular partner-in-crime Sharlto Copley as a robot) shooting in September, followed closely by the tiny comedy "Mild Oats," a movie he described in the same Wired piece as "John Waters meets 'Jackass.'"
"The equation becomes: am I not excited enough about other ideas that I'm willing to return to 'District 9.' And at the moment, I have other things that I'm really into," he continued.
So, while we won't start standing in line for a "District 9" sequel, it could still happen. And Blomkamp hasn't dismissed continuing the world outside of traditional film medium -- this seems to be the kind of expansive universe that could easily span comic books and video games, especially since the original started as a short film and then grew into a feature.
"Elysium" opens next week.
[via EW]
