District 9 is a 2009 science fiction action film directed by Neill
Blomkamp in his feature film debut, written by Blomkamp and Terri
Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. It
is a co-production of New Zealand, the United States and South Africa.
The film stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James, and was
adapted from Blomkamp's 2006 short film Alive in Joburg.The film is
partially presented in a found footage format by featuring fictional
interviews, news footage, and video from surveillance cameras. The
story, which explores themes of humanity, xenophobia and social
segregation, begins in an alternate 1982, when an alien spaceship
appears over Johannesburg, South Africa. When a population of sick and
malnourished insectoid aliens are discovered on the ship, the South
African government confines them to an internment camp called District
9. Twenty years later, during the government's relocation of the
aliens to another camp, one of the confined aliens named Christopher
Johnson, who is about to try to escape from Earth with his son and
return home, crosses paths with a bureaucrat leading the relocation
named Wikus van der Merwe. The title and premise of District 9 were
inspired by events in Cape Town's District Six, during the apartheid
era.A viral marketing campaign for the film began in 2008 at San Diego
Comic-Con, while the theatrical trailer debuted in July 2009. District
9 was released by TriStar Pictures on 14 August 2009, in North America
and became a financial success, earning over $210 million at the box
office. It also received acclaim from critics, who praised the film's
direction, performances, themes, and story, with some calling it one
of the best science fiction films of the 2000s, and garnered numerous
awards and nominations, including four Academy Award nominations for
Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best
Film Editing.
Blomkamp in his feature film debut, written by Blomkamp and Terri
Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. It
is a co-production of New Zealand, the United States and South Africa.
The film stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James, and was
adapted from Blomkamp's 2006 short film Alive in Joburg.The film is
partially presented in a found footage format by featuring fictional
interviews, news footage, and video from surveillance cameras. The
story, which explores themes of humanity, xenophobia and social
segregation, begins in an alternate 1982, when an alien spaceship
appears over Johannesburg, South Africa. When a population of sick and
malnourished insectoid aliens are discovered on the ship, the South
African government confines them to an internment camp called District
9. Twenty years later, during the government's relocation of the
aliens to another camp, one of the confined aliens named Christopher
Johnson, who is about to try to escape from Earth with his son and
return home, crosses paths with a bureaucrat leading the relocation
named Wikus van der Merwe. The title and premise of District 9 were
inspired by events in Cape Town's District Six, during the apartheid
era.A viral marketing campaign for the film began in 2008 at San Diego
Comic-Con, while the theatrical trailer debuted in July 2009. District
9 was released by TriStar Pictures on 14 August 2009, in North America
and became a financial success, earning over $210 million at the box
office. It also received acclaim from critics, who praised the film's
direction, performances, themes, and story, with some calling it one
of the best science fiction films of the 2000s, and garnered numerous
awards and nominations, including four Academy Award nominations for
Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best
Film Editing.
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