The Origins Of Neil Blomkamp's Next Project - "Chappie"

While Elysium draws near, another project has already popped up under Neil Blomkamp's IMDB tentatively called Chappie with a tentative release date and some attached cast set for 2014. It's been interesting to see his path as a director, revisiting proof of concept shorts filmed in the past and turning them into fully fleshed out features, including Alive In Joburg, a 2005 short which would go on to become the critically acclaimed District 9.

Sharlto Copley as Kruger in Elysium.

Chappie is going to be based off Tetra Vaal, a 2004 short created as a test for motion capture and compositing. The short features a robotic cop patrolling the streets of South Africa, tying into an ongoing theme of setting his movies in third world countries to offer a different perspective than most movies out there. South African actor Sharlto Copley (Who played Wikus in District 9 and Kruger in Elysium) has already been cast as the robotic cop, with rumors of Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) also in talks for a leading role. All these little pieces lead me to believe that we'll be looking at the equivalent of an alternate reality take on Robocop next year, which I honestly can't wait for.