Neil Blomkamp's Abandoned 'Alien' Concepts Reveal A Great Film That Never Was

If I could sum up my relationship to the Aliens movie franchise in two words, they would be "affectionately turbulent". The entire series has bobbed and darted at each end of the spectrum of quality, from Ridley Scott's masterful 1979 original and James Cameron's superb if tonally divergent sequel, to the series' last two sequels (and one prequel) that charitably run the gamut between 'scattershot' and 'unfortunate'. So when I saw these concept art pieces posted by Neil Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium) related to a supposedly cancelled(?) spec-sequel helmed by the man himself, my heart broke a little.

Hello Mother.

Part of me is stubbornly holding out hope that this is all just a stealth-promotion campaign to drum up and demonstrate public support for his own iteration in the franchise, much like the 'leak' of the Deadpool sizzle-trailer that coincidentally led to the film finally be green-lit after witnessing the hype. At least, that's what I imagine this is when you have sheepishly implicit remarks like , "[20th Century Fox] didn't even know I was working on it haha...Woulda rocked. Was a mental stroll into the world Ridley Scott created...maybe I'll go back to it ....love the world". 

Check out the rest below the break. Shouts out to Meredith Woerner of io9 for breaking the story!

"Elysium" - Trillions of Surfaces Tech Demo

The San Rafael, California based Whisky Tree VFX house just recently released some breakdowns for their work on Neil Blomkamp's Elysium. The reel shows off how they created, layered and populated the entire landscape of the stunning offworld colony, which was designed by legendary designer Syd Mead.

If there's one thing that movie could have used more of, it was a little more immersion into that beautiful setting they established once the protagonists reached Elysium. We were given a small taste, and then spent the rest of the movie running around corridors. Check out Whisky Tree's 2014 VFX reel after the break, covering more of their digital environment creation skills!

Elysium - The Art Of The Movie

Did you guys get a chance to check out Neil Blomkamp's latest third world scifi epic, Elysium? It seems like it was pretty unanimous that the movie could have been better from a plot and character development perspective, but ultimately I felt like visually it offered a ton of eye candy, courtesy of a top notch team of visual designers over at New Zealand's WETA Digital. If anything I was left wishing they had a little more time to flesh out the story and the motives of certain characters, like the strangely flat power hungry Elysium chairman and Matt Damon's underdeveloped character. The movie offered little tastes of a rich world that I wish we could have seen more of, like the incredible Torus colony that the rich live on, but ultimately I'm sure it was trimmed down due to budget limitations.

Exoskeleton concept by Aaron Beck (Via)

Now the folks at Titan books were kind enough to send us a copy of the art book for the film, but we decided to wait a bit before previewing it as a spoiler courtesy (The book gives away a bunch)..Now that the movie is mostly out of theaters, I did a little preview of this excellent art book for you guys to check out. In terms of value I think it's one of the best art books I've seen in a long while, bursting at the seams with concepts unlike anything I've seen before. The amount of commentary offers a very interesting look at visual choices made during different stages of production, including the original plan of doing rubber masked cyborgs (Actors with prosthetics) due to early budget restrictions that would have prevented the use of CG.

If you're into scifi art, regardless of the merits of this film I couldn't recommend all 176 pages of this art book more. The sheer variety of cool designs was pretty incredible, including the very distinct visual languages for the more apocalyptic, kitbash-centric earth and the utopian, clean aesthetic of Elysium. If you haven't already, pick up Elysium - The Art of the Film on Amazon for $25.

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.

New Elysium Trailer Gives Us A Taste Of Two Worlds

As Neil Blomkamp's next big thing draws near, the hype machine continues to rev up for Elysium. It's shaping up to be a great year for scifi, with Pacific Rim hitting in two weeks and this movie coming out in early August. The latest trailer for Elysium offers us a taste of the sheer ruin that Max (Matt Damon) resides in, as well as some answers regarding his motives for heading to the pristine Elysium colony for rich people.

Similar to District 9, I think this movie will have a strongly relatable protagonist- An everyday man placed in extraordinary circumstances against his own will. In Wikus' case it was the accidental exposure to alien gas without proper precautions, and in Max's case it'll be a workplace accident that ends up being the catalyst to taking some extraordinary measures. Can't wait till this hits on August 9, synopsis below.

In the year 2159 two classes of people exist: the very wealthy, who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. The people of Earth are desperate to escape the planet's crime and poverty, and they critically need the state-of-the-art medical care available on Elysium - but some in Elysium will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve their citizens' luxurious lifestyle. 

The only man with the chance bring equality to these worlds is Max (Matt Damon), an ordinary guy in desperate need to get to Elysium. With his life hanging in the balance, he reluctantly takes on a dangerous mission - one that pits him against Elysium's Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) and her hard-line forces - but if he succeeds, he could save not only his own life, but millions of people on Earth as well. 

Neill Blomkamp's Elysium Trailer : Scifi Grounded In Reality

Ever since 2009's excellent District 9, I've been dreaming of someone coming along and topping the unique scifi style and themes that director Neill Blomkamp put forward. The prawn filled film dealt with issues of xenophobia and racism from a perspective heavily grounded in reality, going so far as to use a name for the camp reminiscent of the apartheid era District Six. Blomkamp also made the bold decision to use real life interviews of South Africans talking about Zimbabwean refugees in their country, presented as if they were talking about the unwelcome alien inhabitants in District 9.

The debut trailer for Elysium looks like it will reflect some real life issues as well, mainly the never ending battle regarding the distribution of wealth among classes and the 1% concept that became truly obvious following the 2007/2008 financial collapse. Starring Matt Damon as a downtrodden earth dweller and Jodie Foster as the enforcer of a utopia for the wealthy, the movie looks like it's shaping up to be a scifi entry to truly look forward to this August.

In the year 2159 two classes of people exist: the very wealthy who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Rhodes, a government official, will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium. That doesn't stop the people of Earth from trying to get in, by any means they can. When unlucky Max is backed into a corner, he agrees to take on a daunting mission that if successful will not only save his life, but could bring equality to these polarized worlds.

Who Is Armadyne?

Armadyne Corp, the viral website for Elysium. (Via)

Looks like we have a new viral for Neil Blomkamp's new project, after District 9. This website was posted by some WETA people I know over Facebook. This viral website just popped up recently, showcasing a non embeddable video calling for people like 'Zero G Welders,' 'Multigeneration planners,' and Quantum networkers...Giving us the clue that this movie has to do with giant spaceships in the future...After some digging around we got a few more details revolving around this project:

-The cast includes Matt Damon, Jodie Foster Alice Braga, Wagner Moura and Sharlto Copley.
-The plot might revolve around humans vs aliens, and Jodie Foster might be the ruler of said aliens.
-The movie hasn't started shooting yet, but has a tentative Spring 2013 release date. The website revealed that its a Sony Pictures project.

Thats about all we know, but we're excited about this first step in their Viral...And the idea that Neil will be taking the reigns of another original IP is pretty exciting stuff, honestly. We look forward to learning more, and we'll definitely be following the viral as it unfolds!