Jackson-produced sci-fi thriller explores complex social issues

'District 9's director Neil Blomkamp reportedly used most of his $30 million budget on special effects.

Latest summer blockbuster also explores complex social issues

Usually directors get more visibility, recognition and credit (or blame) for films, but that's not going to be the case with Neil Blomkamp's District 9, which opens Friday.

The focus will be aimed as much, if not more, on producer Peter Jackson, best known as the Oscar-winning force behind The Lord of the Rings trilogy. If Jackson hadn't gotten involved with a low-budget operation ($30 million, a feeble sum for a major project) and personally chosen Blomkamp, whose original video production greatly influences the storyline and direction of District 9, chances are the film wouldn't have been made.

Adding to the intrigue is the fact that the project has an unheralded director and cast, with inexperienced 35-year-old South African actor Sharlto Copley in a key role. Plus, the film explores many issues that a lot of audiences would rather not spend hard-earned money seeing illuminated in what's supposed to be an entertainment vehicle.

Through the creation of an aliens vs. humans scenario, Blomkamp presents storylines about segregation, hostility and fear of immigrants, governmental secrecy, paranoia and deceit. And, it raises the issue of just how evolved, progressive and caring humanity truly can be when faced with possible extinction or radical species change.

There's also a conspiratorial backdrop. The film establishes a world where aliens landed decades ago in a Johannesburg slum. Government types discover that there are more than 1 million alien drones on board, mindless and helpless pawns seeking guidance. Operating from both practical and political imperatives, the South African government quickly decides to put them into a separate enclave and assign a mysterious entity to control the operation. The aliens reside in District 9.

But eventually other factors change things, so this corporation wants to relocate the aliens. An emissary (Copley) gets the job of persuading them to find alternative shelter. Of course he's actually evicting them but doesn't present it to them in quite that manner. However, fate then plays a horrible trick, and Copley's character finds his life turned totally upside down. Making matters worse, his plight becomes tied to that of everyone on earth, and the resulting furor isn't remotely pretty.

The right-wing objections to District 9 are already all over the Internet. Some see it as an overwrought civil rights era relic, while others feel setting the film in South Africa and injecting an "apartheid undertone" dates it and dims its impact. Interestingly, Jackson, Blomkamp and company reportedly spend most of their budget on special effects, and depend solely on the skills of the cast to tell the story and sell the themes.

As the rare low-cost, message-oriented summer blockbuster, District 9 has one thing going for it by opening this week. There's nothing along the lines of a Transformers or even a G.I. Joe (which pulled a whopping $56.2 million last week despite horrible reviews) opposing it. It's also gotten a publicity campaign that may be more expensive than its budget, with an EW cover story and features slated for every major newspaper in the country before Friday.

Whether that's enough to turn a heartfelt movie about the ravages of fear, ignorance and hatred into a hit remains to be seen, but the track record of Jackson at least says District 9 has a chance for success.

District 9
Directed by: Neil Blomkamp
Written by: Terri Tachell, Neil Blomkamp
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, Nathalie Bott, Sylvaine Strike, John Summer
Rating: R
Time: 112 minutes