District 9 is the kind of science fiction we deserve. The main character is a spineless racist who is only really concerned with his own well-being and the love of his wife, the plot takes logical steps to elevate the situation towards an action-packed climax, but the whole ordeal grows out of a classic aliens-as-metaphor conceit.

Best of all, the flick doesn’t feel like it’s pulling any punches or taking any leaps of faith to trick you into liking it. It’s a bold debut film and, with the exception of Duncan Jones’ Moon, the only science fiction film that feels like it’s ready to join the family of classics without depending on becoming a box office smash over a few weeks. District 9 might be my favorite movie of the year thus far, and I don’t want to spoil the experience I had by blowing the film’s wad in plot description and details.

That being said…

Decades ago, an alien ship appeared over Johannesburg, South Africa. It stopped and hovered until the inhabitants of Earth finally cut through its hull, revealing malnourished and starving aliens living in their own filth. It seems that the leadership of the race had died and the remaining aliens, dubbed “prawns” because of their lobster/grasshopper like appearance, we stranded here.

As part of a seemingly philanthropic gesture, the prawns were moved to District 9 in South Africa where they have lived until present day. District 9 has become a slum and the residents of Johannesburg are less than thrilled with their extraterrestrial neighbors. The aliens have brought weaponry, though it’s mostly been confiscated and cannot be operated by any non-alien due to DNA recognition technology that is beyond our understanding. What weapons are left are quickly gobbled up by Nigerian slum-lords who run District 9’s black market and crime syndicate (including prostitution, which – thank God – we never have to watch).

Finally, public uproar is heard and MNU, a faceless bureaucratic company combined with a Blackwater like militia, is charged with evicting the residents of District 9 and moving them to a new camp with a more organize, concentration camp feel. Put in charge of this operation is Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a character who initially looks better suited to be guest-starring on the British incarnation of The Office than running this sort of large-scale, possibly illegal operation.

Wikus burns prawn babies and finds some illegal caches of weapons…and something else.

What happens to Wikus kicks the story off running and the fauxumentary look of the beginning of the film, complete with expert interviews, melts away so we can follow some amazing action set pieces and CGI aliens with hand-held, in the moment action beats. When everything finally simmers down, we get a coda in the documentary style, bookending an intimate experience with wide-world implications.

This is the debut film from Neill Blomkamp, the fine young gentleman who was all ready to direct the Halo movie before that fell apart (now that responsibility lies with Steven Spielberg), and it shows. The action is frenetic and full of tech, the camera is occasionally mounted to soldiers as they spin around corners, guns ready and some of the alien weaponry looks like a video game made manifest. I’m so sad Blomkamp says he won’t do Halo. His prepping for the movie shows, and his series of three Halo live-action shorts titled “Arms Race” have a lot of similar looking action to District 9.

Although it gets dangerously close to spoilers, I will only say that District 9 does leave room for a sequel, but I really hope no one thinks that’s a good idea. A $30 million dollar debut feature has been executed about as well as anyone could, and – like classic science fiction before it – all of our questions don’t need to be answered, they just need to be asked.

District 9 is amazing and because the joy of discovering it is part of the magic, this review is mediocre. Go see it when you can, then I would suggest THIS All Things Fan Girl article for your post-D9 reading.

Over the weekend we heard that Steven Spielberg may have signed up to produce Halo: Fall of Reach, based on the script by G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra writer Stuart Beattie. Fans of the game were probably welcomed this development considering the Halo movie has been dead ever since everything fell apart a few years ago. Plus it’s Steven Spielberg. However, gaming site Kotaku decided to ask Microsoft whether there was any truth to this, and while that didn’t deny anything, they said that the movie is still “on hold”.

We’re glad there’s still a lot of enthusiasm in the entertainment industry surrounding the idea of a Halo movie. That said, the Halo feature film remains on hold as we focus on projects like Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach.

I hope that Steven Spielberg has decided to produce and that this isn’t just someone jumping the gun, however even if Spielberg was on-board Microsoft probably wouldn’t have announced it anyway, as the deals may not be complete. Hopefully if there are developments we will hear about them in the upcoming weeks and months.

District 9 is released next week and is director Neill Blomkamp’s first feature film, however if 20th Century Fox and Universal didn’t pull the plug his first big film could have been a movie adaptation of the game Halo. Peter Jackson was producing and his special effects company WETA were working on the effects, however the studios didn’t want to take a risk with the first time director. Blomkamp recently spoke to MTV about his time working on the film, and confirmed that it was dead:

“It’s completely and utterly dead,” he said, with a small, wistful grin. “‘Halo’ is a really tough one for me… it keeps coming up.” Not terribly surprising, considering how passionate and loyal the gamer fanbase — and the “Halo” fanbase in particular — tends to be.

“It’s tough because I spent five months working on it, like 24 hours a day. Not only because it was my first film and I had an opportunity to try and, you know, make the best film I could make, but I loved the creative environments of ‘Halo’ so much,” he said. “The whole universe is incredibly compelling.”

Even though that particular Halo project wasn’t moving forward writer Stuart Beattie (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) who is a fan of the game decided to write a ’spec script’, which is basically a script he didn’t get paid for and which he will be presenting to movie studios in the hope that it will get a greenlight. The title of the script was Halo: Fall of Reach. Last year Latino Review read and reviewed the script and has this to say:

The script is, first and foremost, a character-driven story about a soldier named John who was kidnapped or “conscripted” by the UNSC when he was just six years old, and then brutally trained to become an elite Spartan warrior known as Master Chief 117.

The script then takes us through the horrific first contact with the Covenant hordes on the doomed colony world of Harvest, and then climaxes with the spectacular fall of the UNSC forward base on Reach, during which every other Spartan is slaughtered.

Now according to IESB a producer and director who goes by the name of Steven Spielberg is currently in active negotiations to develop the film based on Stuart Beattie’s script.

Spielberg is blown away by writer Stuart Beattie’s take on the game in his script entitled HALO THE FALL OF REACH. This coupled with the fact that his Dreamworks umbrella is looking for a big tent pole to help launch their newly independant studio with distribution over at Walt Disney Pictures after losing Transformers to Paramount in the separation, it’s the perfect combination.

Word is CAA, who rep both Spielberg and Beattie, is pushing these negotiations heavily.

If these negotiations work out well we could be getting a Steven Spielberg produced Halo film. There is also the possibility that Spielberg could get Peter Jackson back on-board seeing as though both he and Jackson are working on Tintin together. If things work out the big question will be who they get to direct. Any Halo fans out there have a dream Halo director in mind?

District 9 is one of those films that has managed to sharply divide those who pay attention to upcoming releases and the casual movie-goer. So many of my friends that will habitually catch about one film a week just as something to do have no idea why there is a sticker on the bathroom doors that say “Humans Only.”

They laugh and think it’s some sort of joke, they’re not at all aware that it’s District 9 advertising.

On the other hand, the folks I know who voraciously devour movie news on the internet and see summer blockbusters on opening day continue to build the excitement for Neill Blomkamp and Peter Jackson’s sci-fi summer fare.

After all, Blomkamp and Jackson were the folks who were going to bring us the Halo movie before it imploded in Development Hell. The new previews for the film show some alien fights and crazy alien tech, while G.I. Joe’s Accelerator Suits look like a big-screen version of Spartan warriors. We’re getting pieces, and at least Blomkamp will get to prove his gumption with a late summer alien sci fi film.

USA Today has posted a new image from District 9. It shows Sharlto Copley as on-the-run agent Wikus. Wikus is hiding out in the alien internment camp, and he has a big gun.

CLICK HERE to see the whole thing, and get ready for something interesting when District 9 opens in the US on August 14th.

District 9 is what Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp decided to focus on when plans to make the movie adaptation of Halo broke down. The film tells the story of an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions in South Africa. They suddenly find a kindred spirit in a government agent that is exposed to their biotechnology. From the trailer it looks very interesting, and the fact that we haven’t really seen anything like this before will just increase peoples interest. Watch the teaser below!

District 9 will be released in August, so we can expect more stuff over the upcoming months.

The last thing we heard on Halo was that Microsoft were talking to other studios after Universal and Fox pulled out of the project, and that pre-production was still being worked on at Peter Jackson’s WETA. Things were not moving on well at all, so a frustrated fan took things into his own hands. However, this fan was not your ordinary fan, this fan was a Hollywood writer. Stuart Beattie has worked on the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, and is the writer of upcoming G.I. Joe. According to Latino Review Beattie has written a ’spec script’ which is basically a script he didn’t get paid for and which he will be presenting to movie studios in the hope that it will get a greenlight. The title of the script is Halo: Fall of Reach and this is what is involves:

The script is, first and foremost, a character-driven story about a soldier named John who was kidnapped or “conscripted” by the UNSC when he was just six years old, and then brutally trained to become an elite Spartan warrior known as Master Chief 117.

The script then takes us through the horrific first contact with the Covenant hordes on the doomed colony world of Harvest, and then climaxes with the spectacular fall of the UNSC forward base on Reach, during which every other Spartan is slaughtered.

The script also gives detailed outlines for the second movie, HALO: RISE OF THE FLOOD, which takes place entirely on the Halo ringworld, and the third and final movie, HALO: BATTLE FOR EARTH, which roughly follows the events of Halo 3, the game.

One cool advantage of this first script is that (like the shark in JAWS) you don’t even see the Covenant until halfway through the movie. And because all the creatures are CGI creations, this cuts the budget down dramatically and makes a first Halo movie that much more viable. For Halo fans, it’s like the prequel that provides all the answers to questions they’ve thought about for years. For non Halo fans, it’s an exciting action movie that provides a clear, concise introduction to a world five hundred years in the future with relatable characters and a terrifying alien menace.

And there we have it. Lets hope people with power have a read and hopefully something will come out of it. Halo has been a massive success in the gaming world, so that could easily translate onto movie $$$. I personally have had little experience with the game. During my first twenty minute session I successfully managed to only damage the mountains, as my corpse was splatted across it. However, just because I am dire at the game doesn’t mean I am not interested in it. Neill Blomkamp, who was attached to directed before it all went down hill, made some cool short films that show he has what it takes to transfer Halo onto the big screen. Plus Peter Jackson is involved, so that isn’t exactly a bad thing, is it?

I have come to realise that most films with Peter Jackson involved have problems of some sort. There is the ‘will Jackson sort things out with New Line and direct The Hobbit’ and more recently ‘Ryan Reynolds is replaced by Mark Wahlberg days before filming of The Loverly Bones‘ and something that has been around throughout all of them was whether Halo would ever be brought onto the big screen.

A ‘n00b’ director was hired, who goes by the name of Neill Blomkamp, Jackson’s WETA started work on the project and everything was good to go…until Universal and FOX pulled out last minute. The main reason was money. If Halo was going to be as good as it deserved the budget needed to be rather high, and they were not willing to risk that amount of money on a fairly new director, even if he had Peter Jackson’s backing. So time passed, Halo 3 was released to the gaming world and made $300 million in one week. However, Neill Blomkamp recently declared the project ‘dead’ and said it had been for some time.

However, according to Peter Jackson’s representative Ken Kamins, Microsoft is currently in talks with other studio’s, and WETA are still working on the pre-production. He also commented on how the creative team will stay the same.

“Everybody is supremely confident in Neal,” Kamins said. “Part of what excited Peter and Fran was Neal’s vision. We’re very confident this film will move forward with the creative partners intact, who will take the film to production.”

I have every confidence that Peter Jackson, along with Walsh and Blomkamp, can make a great movie. They just need a movie studio that has confidence, or a bit of common sense.