Look. If you made one of the best sci-fi movies of all time, people are going to ask you about it. However, if you’re director Neill Blomkamp, and you have a movie coming out called Gran Turismo, you probably would rather talk about that.
In a new interview with Uproxx, Blomkamp made himself pretty clear. Interestingly, the article starts with a preamble about how the interviewer asking about District 9 pretty much shut down the interview. Here’s writer Mike Ryan:
“I was wondering if he feels his other films, fairly or unfairly, were held up against the success of District 9. And this topic of discussion was going fine, until it wasn’t. To the point Blomkamp just kind of shut down and the publicist on the line suggested we end it and, by that point, I wholeheartedly agreed that was a good idea.”
The honesty here is refreshing. Let’s go through the line of questioning; first, Ryan asked Blomkamp about what it felt like when your first movie was such a smash, and how weird that was to have that kind of success right out of the gate. Here’s Blomkamp:
“Well, I think it was good. If you said to me, when I was 20, you would direct a film that has that response, I would’ve died happy. Because my goal is to just work on films that have an effect on people. And it’s difficult to make films that have that effect all the time, but you can definitely strive to try and do it.”
As far as District 9, he said, it “stands chance of failing as much as it stands the chance of working. … It’s like you have to be okay to go out and be willing to fail and throw yourself out there in order to try to do stuff that sometimes lands.”
So District 9 has been touched on, time to move on? Nope. Ryan then asks if he feels like no matter what he does people are just going to review his first movie, especially if his new movie isn’t successful. Hmm.
Blomkamp, perhaps a little perturbed, said that “as time goes on, it’s probably less and less.” He doesn’t see anything wrong with doing an influential movie for its time, and he can’t see how that’s negative in any way.
Right. Are we done with the District 9 questioning? Here’s Ryan’s next question:
“I would never think it’s negative. I just wonder if you get sick of hearing about it? I guess not. I wouldn’t get sick of hearing about it if I were you, but some people do.”
Here’s when the answers get a little terse: “It’s hard to answer. I don’t know. I need to take a second to think that through.” Ryan says: “Okay, that’s fair.” Blomkamp makes it pretty clear how he feels.
“Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know. I guess I am tired of talking about it.” Hint dropped, He’s done talking about it. Here’s where Ryan takes the conversation next:
“Oh, okay. Which, see, that serves two purposes. It answers the question, and then that’s a kind hint to talk about something else.” Oof. That feels weird. Blomkamp:
“Yeah. I mean, I guess District 9 is positive and had a positive effect when it came out. Now let’s move on.”
Move on they did, with Ryan then giving short little answers that turn into “yeah,” before the publicist says it’s probably best to end the interview. Lessons learned on all ends; but something still tells us it’s going to be a hot minute before Blomkamp does another interview with the publication.
Gran Turismo drifts into theaters on Aug. 25.