11 years after its release, Neill Blomkamp has revealed that he’s finally working on a sequel to District 9. The acclaimed sci-fi flick, his directorial debut, put Blomkamp on the map as a huge fresh talent in the genre. Over the decade since, the filmmaker’s gone on to helm two more movies, 2013’s Matt Damon vehicle Elysium and 2015’s Chappie, but now he’s revisiting the project that made his name.
Blomkamp took to Twitter today to confirm that he’s begun writing the screenplay for the District 9 sequel, which – as we could’ve guessed – goes by the title District 10. Once again, he’s teaming up with long-time collaborators Terri Tatchell and Sharlto Copley (who’s appeared in all three of the director’s films to date) to make it happen. He didn’t offer any further details than that at this time, but he did promise “it[‘]s coming…”
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Set in Blomkamp’s native South Africa, District 9 opens with a spaceship full of refugee aliens crash-landing in Johannesburg in the 1980s. Fast forward 20 years and the aliens have been relocated to an interment camp in the city called District 9. The movie was a surprise hit, earning $210.8 million worldwide off the back of a $30 million budget and was acclaimed for its exploration of xenophobia and social segregation.
Of course, Blomkamp always intended to make a District 9 follow-up, as he’s been talking about it since the first film came out, but he’s come to it the long way around after working on various other projects – including his own Alien movie, which probably would’ve been a lot more satisfying than Covenant. He’s actually got one more film in the can, too, Demonic, his first dip into the horror genre, which is due out later this year after being filmed during the pandemic. Sci-fi thriller Inferno, starring Taylor Kitsch, is also set to start shooting soon after being in the works for a while now.