"I promise you, 3 years!"
In the climactic part of "District 9", the "prawn" alien who is preparing to escape from Earth promises the male protagonist that he will return to Earth after 3 years.
The film leaves the audience with a suspense, when the aliens who were once shipwrecked, full of blood and resurrected to earth, what will happen?
Based on the super high word of mouth, the box office that exceeded the cost by 6 times, and the nomination for the Oscar for Best Picture, many people developed a strong interest in the sequel.
At Hollywood's production rate, 3 years is enough time to make an A-grade blockbuster. To make the prawns "fulfill their promises", from the perspective of filming technology, it is not difficult.
However, the audience waited for 3 years, but did not wait for the arrival of the legendary sequel "District 10".
Then waited another 3 years.
3 years later and 3 years.
Exactly 12 years.
Finally, director Neil Blomkan personally announced that the script for "District 10" has begun to be created!
Blomkamp should be a very assertive and thoughtful person.
After the success of "District 9", as long as he waved his hand, the contract and money for the sequel could immediately come to him.
And the cost may be more than the original $30 million, a full double is not a problem.
Unexpectedly, he did not choose to hit the iron while it was hot.
Although it leaves an open-ended ending and humanity establishes a new "tenth district", the story is obviously not over, but he is not in much of a hurry about making a sequel.
Why "District 10" has not been made after so long has always been controversial.
Let's analyze the causes here by the way.
The main reason is bound to be that Blomkamp does not want to make a mediocre sequel that will affect the status of "District 9".
"District 9" was able to be made thanks to the famous "Lord of the Rings" series director Peter Jackson.
Peter Jackson was the executive producer and chose Blomkamp to direct the game adaptation of Halo.
Unexpectedly, the producer suddenly broke the contract and said that he would not shoot.
Jackson felt that Blomkamp's guy had potential, and felt that he owed him a movie, so he invested $30 million to have the birth of "Ninth District".
If you want to make a sequel, it will definitely no longer be a small cost of 30 million.
The money of hollywood studios will be stationed, the money will be more, and the control over the film will be weakened.
The success of the debut does not mean that Blomkamp can have absolute control over the film like Nolan and Cameron.
So he decided to shoot something else first and adapt to the Hollywood production model.
In 2013, his second work, Elysium Space, was released.
Sony Pictures, the distributor of "District 9", became the producer.
If you can invite Matt Damon and Judy Foster, two top superstars, and have strong special effects scenes, the cost will naturally not be low.
$115 million, definitely an A-grade production.
Just more money didn't get Blomkamp to surpass District Nine.
Because the audience has too high expectations for Blomkamp, even if "Elysium Space" as a commercial film has been passed, the reputation can only be unsatisfactory.
Fortunately, with nearly $300 million at the global box office, Blomkamp didn't let Sony lose money.
So Sony continued to work with Blomkamp and two years later made "Super Chapai".
This time, the word of mouth has rebounded slightly compared with "Elysium Space", and the production cost is only about 50 million.
However, the box office was not as good as expected, with only more than $100 million worldwide.
Two consecutive works cooperated with the big factory, far less than the debut "District 9", just imagine if you really continued to shoot "District 10" at that time, the result may not be better than "Elysium Space" and "Super Chapai".
Blomkamp not only realized that working with a Hollywood studio had both advantages and disadvantages (perhaps Peter Jackson's advice), but was also very self-aware.
I remember a report that Blomkamp said he was a Hollywood rookie after the success of "District 9".
He must have a reverence for movies, so he can resist the temptation of interests, and when he knows that his ability is not enough to make a more difficult sequel movie, he chooses not to make it.
After "Super Chapai", Blomkamp did not work with Sony to make films, but set up his own production company.
Then, news about District 10 swarmed again.
Synthesizing multiple sources, he should have planned to make a sequel, but he just wanted to make full preparations.
After the establishment of the new company, he shot a large number of experimental short films, one of the more popular ones was "Raqqa" starring Sigourney Weaver, the heroine of the "Alien" series.
With its own company, Blomkamp can imitate Nolan's route, find a big factory to cooperate in distribution, and control the film itself.
It's just that due to copyright and other issues, he can't start filming "District 10" immediately.
Even so, there are already many versions of the story on the Internet about this delayed sequel.
Some say that it will happen more than a hundred years after "District Nine", because of the return of aliens and the collapse of many humans, they once hated the appearance of aliens, thus causing a series of problems, the original human civilization is facing the road to collapse. "District 10", on the other hand, is about what happens after civilization collapses.
Douban even wrote a version of the "complete plot", of course, this credibility is not high. After all, the director has said that the script has only just begun to be officially written.
After two Hollywood blockbusters, starting his own film company, and doing a lot of experimental ideas through short films, Neil Blomkamp is finally back in the world of District Nine.
Hope for a more powerful, no longer a rookie Blomkamp, won't leave the audience white to wait 12 years.
Add in the production time, it should be 13 or even 14 years.
"The Tenth District" became Blomkamp's fourth feature film.
p.s.
At the time of writing this, actor Wu Mengda left this world peacefully.
I have mixed feelings, I want to say a lot, and it is difficult to describe.
He said goodbye to the world, but also said goodbye to illness, busy for so long, finally can rest well, not necessarily all bad things.
It's just that we still need some time to accept reality.
Uncle Da, all the way!