Neill Blomkamp scored a critical success with his 2009 debut District 9, although the filmmaker has struggled to replicate that with his subsequent films Elysium and Chappie, with the latter in particular coming on for some harsh criticism. Speaking to Screen Rant to promote his new series of short films from Oats Studios, Blomkamp has reflected on the two movies, revealing that he feels he could have done better with Elysium, and is keen to revisit the world.
“Elysium is more something I feel like I could have done better,” states Blomkamp. “I think that if you were to take something like Elysium and play with it inside a setting like this you probably would hone it – you would end up, I think, with something well thought through and that has all of the thematic elements that I wanted. I still love the set up to Elysium. The idea of the separation of class warfare presented with this space ring is incredibly appealing to me and I would love to go back and make another movie in the world of Elysium because it’s compelling. I just think I can do a better job in setting up what the themes are more clearly and what the character’s motivations are. I can do it better, I think.”
As for Chappie, Blomkamp stats that he is happy with the final film: “Just to clear that up. Chappie was never something that I said I would have done differently. It was actually the opposite with Chappie. It’s that despite everything negative that happened with that film I will stand by the way that I made it. For me as the creator of it, I feel did exactly I had in my head. Whether I deserved criticism for it or not, I feel like I got it right. I obviously have absolutely no control over how the audiences respond to anything I make, but I know as an artist making the piece that I feel like either did what I had and I stuck true to it and I got it the way I wanted to, or I didn’t. And I know that I feel like Chappie was done in the way I wanted it to be done. That means if audiences come around to it and people begin to respond to it then I would love that. I’m all for that. I can’t control what happens.”
If you’re yet to watch Blomkamp’s Oats Studios shorts, we have them for you here: Rakka, Firebase, God: Serengeti and Zygote.
Originally published July 16, 2017. Updated April 15, 2018.
