SAN DIEGO — In a summer filled with big-budget movies featuring brand names such as "Transformers," "G.I. Joe," "Star Trek" and "Harry Potter," Peter Jackson knew that the low-budget, aliens-on-earth tale "District 9," which he produced, couldn't succeed if it took the same special effects-heavy approach as those films.
Instead of wowing audiences with bombastic moments, the filmmakers settled on a design that emphasizes barbed wire and urban decay.
"It's a strange world where $30 million isn't a lot of money," Jackson said while discussing the movie at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con. "It wasn't a film on anybody's radar."
Making a film that sneaks up on people is not something New Zealander Jackson has done for the past decade. And he knows a few things about big movies after writing and directing the Oscar-winning "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, as well as the 2005 remake of "King Kong."
But "District 9" has more in common with his low-budget, sometimes forgotten splatter films "Bad Taste" (1987) and "Dead Alive" (1992) rather than those big studio projects. "District 9" was made without a single recognizable star or studio financing, and it contains graphic violence, alien splatter and goo that, along with strong language, earned it an R rating from the MPAA.
The small-budget film rose from the ashes of a scrapped, big-budget project. Neill Blomkamp had been tapped to direct a Jackson-produced, $120 million adaptation of the ultra-popular video game "Halo." It was the chance of a lifetime for the young South African filmmaker. And when studio politics killed the film, it was devastating for all involved. But Blomkamp's next big chance came quickly — thanks to Jackson.
"We thought, 'Let's make a film with Neill. There's no reason why ('Halo') falling over has to mean that we don't get to make a film. Let's just do an original movie, something low-budget that we can finance independently so we don't have to go through the studio experience that we just had," Jackson said. "And that's how 'District 9' was born."
Blomkamp already had a documentary-style, six-minute short called "Alive in Joburg" (which can be found on YouTube and other sites). The short featured extraterrestrials living in ghetto poverty in Johannesburg, South Africa, and feeling the effects of xenophobia. No aliens obliterating the White House here.
"Aliens arriving on Earth isn't particularly unique, " Blomkamp said. "But the idea of science fiction in a slightly unique setting was really appealing to me."
The idea behind the short grew into a feature. Making a story set in South Africa and filming it there not only saved the production money, it also gave the film a layer that no other setting would have provided.
"When we started conceiving the very idea of how 'District 9' would grow out of 'Joburg,' I think for the first few months I was thinking of a film that probably was too serious and took itself too seriously," Blomkamp said. Then he discovered that he was making satire. "When that happened, everything about it just kind of loosened up and became more enjoyable.
"Having said that, I grew up in South Africa during Apartheid and I very actively wanted to make a film that had science fiction placed in that African setting," he said. "There's no question that there's many, many, many elements of Apartheid and segregation that have made their way into the film. But it doesn't beat you over the head. I'm simply saying 'This is all stuff that affected me when I was a kid and I put science fiction into it.' Now you can take from it what you want."
The film screened for the first time publicly at July's San Diego Comic-Con. The response at that screening was overwhelmingly favorable, although with a crowd predisposed to like the film. Jackson says he was "thrilled with the reaction.
"You lose objectivity when you're a filmmaker. There comes a very horrible time when you realize you no longer really know what you made. It was a great experience last night to see it and feel it play to a room full of people and feel them enjoying it. It's a great sense of relief — really terrific."
Times are busy for Jackson, who said he is only weeks away from turning in a first script on part one of a two-movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit." (While he is producing the films, they are being directed and co-scripted by Guillermo del Toro.)
Another adaptation, Alice Sebold's novel "The Lovely Bones," is finished and will be released Dec. 11. It is already receiving some buzz for award season. And Jackson has been collaborating with Steven Spielberg on a pair of films based on the popular European comics character Tintin.
Also, Jackson's special-effects company, WETA Digital, has been busy. Ironically, it was so pressed to finish the effects for "Titanic" director James Cameron's upcoming "Avatar" that the work on "District 9" was passed to another special-effects house.
As for Blomkamp, his career path appears to hinge on this film's reception at the box office. But he is optimistic and is already thinking about a sequel.
"I am nervous," he said. "I just hope it does well. I'm anxious and I want it to get out there, and I just want to see how people respond to it. But the good news is I'm really proud of it, which is as much as you can hope for."
e-mail: lc@desnews.com