Actor Sharlto Copley has provided a pretty promising update on the development of a sequel to District 9, revealing that both he and director Neill Blomkamp have written a draft of the script. Appearing on Post Credit Podcast, Copley offered some insight into the direction of the themes that will be included in District 10, and even stated that they are hoping to begin filming the project in a year or so.
“Yeah, man, we’ve been working. I did a draft, I sent it back to him. He’s done a draft. It’s like just tiring to find the right sort of story. There were some things going on socio-politically that he [director Neill Blomkamp] felt maybe timing-wise he didn’t want to go immediately. So maybe in like a year, year-and-a-half [we’ll begin filming]. He wants to have something to say.”
Released in 2009, District 9 utilizes found footage in the form of fictional interviews, news footage, and video from surveillance cameras, as well as more traditional sequences, beginning in an alternate 1982 in which a giant extra-terrestrial spaceship arrives and hovers over the South African city of Johannesburg. A population of sick and malnourished insectoid aliens are discovered living in squalor inside the ship and are subsequently moved and confined to an internment camp, District 9.
The story then leaps forward 20 years, with the ship still casting a shadow over the city. The government decides to relocate the aliens to another camp, resulting in one of the aliens, known as Christopher Johnson, crossing paths with bureaucrat Wikus van der Merwe, who is about to find himself the target of a nationwide manhunt.
District 9 ends with Wikus transformed into an alien, or Prawn, with Christopher promising he will return and cure him in three years. Unfortunately for Copley’s character, that was now 13 years ago. During the interview, Copley was reminded of Christopher’s assurance, to which the actor reportedly “replied with an emphatic ‘He did, bro.’”
District 10 Will Reflect a Topic from American History
Audiences have wondered whether there would ever be a District 10 following that somewhat cliffhanger ending that concludes District 9. Recently, director Neill Blomkamp has provided several updates, revealing that his plan is for the movie to reflect a particular topic from American history.
"That script continues to be written. It's looking good,” the filmmaker said last year. “It took a decade to figure out, to come up with a reason why to make that film as opposed to just make a sequel. There was a topic in American history that the second I realized that that fit into the world of District 9, it felt like an awesome way to do a sequel. So yeah, it continues to be developed and it's getting a lot closer."
Even more recently, Blomkamp has stated that "I am still working on it... the answer is it's within the near future."
Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, District 9 stars Sharlto Copley, David James, and Jason Cope as Christopher Johnson, District 9 is now considered a modern sci-fi classic as well as by far the best movie crafted by director Neill Blomkamp. Here's hoping District 10 will live up to the legacy.