Filming an original major motion picture in the sci-fi genre with a budget of only $30 million seems like an effort in futility in this day and age. Today's moviegoers are more sophisticated than ever and so is the technology -- James Cameron's Avatar is rumored to have a budget in excess of $200 million.
So, how do you produce a film for that budget and manage to get people to see it? Enter producer Peter Jackson and director Neill Blomkamp. Shot "guerilla style" with a variety of cost-effective film techniques, District 9 has also benefited from an immersive viral website.
With a similar budget and marketing campaign, comparisons to last year's Cloverfield were inevitable. However, Jackson says that is where the similarities end:
It's not somebody running around with a camera, filming everything. We have a mixture of documentary and dramatized scenes.
The plot of the film originated with Blomkamp's short film Alive in Joburg and tells the tale of alien refugees who land in Africa and are subsequently forced into slavery. Jackson told Entertainment Weekly:
They have technology and weapons that are extremely appealing to various forces -- and that's where it all goes wrong.