Ofor the past six years, acclaimed filmmaker Neill Blomkamp (Districts 9, Elisi) has been attached to sequels of Aliens i RoboCop, two of the most beloved modern science fiction series. However, despite considerable online interest in both projects, they would have ignored subsequent installments and recovered immediately after 1986. Aliens and in 1987 RoboCop, respectively, neither seems to be off the field in the foreseeable future, courtesy of conflicting views and study priorities. Still, on the eve of the debut of his new thriller Demonic, the Oscar-nominated South African writer / director remains optimistic about the possibility of working again in established franchises, as long as the opportunity is right.
“It would not be contrary to look at other large fragments of intellectual property that belong to the study. I think you just have to be very careful, ”he said. “Without a doubt, there is no reason not to work with great film studios. It’s actually a pretty good process. The only thing to keep in mind is that with a well-known IP, what does that mean? You just have to be more discriminating with the help you render toward other people. “
While Alien i RoboCop not out of fear, Blomkamp has a new adventure of great projection: a sequel to his 2009 breakthrough Districts 9, the allegory of science fiction apartheid that won four Oscar gestures (including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay). The writer / director has recently stated that his planned follow-up will take root in American history, although when pressed directly on the film, he is reluctant to reveal many details. Still, he reveals that making a sequel in the first place was never a concrete goal; rather, it simply arose from a natural moment of inspiration.
“I never wanted to force a sequel. It was just one day, I was surprised by something and realized that there could be a really fun way to do a sequel that suddenly made sense to me. That’s really all it is, right? Don’t force creativity like that. And if it takes more than a decade, that’s fine. It could take an eternity and there is never a sequel. It does not matter “. That said, if Blomkamp is not ready to provide a schedule Districts 10when finished, check that it is currently on the front. “I am actively working on it. I’m not sure when it will be right and perfect. “
While planning a trip back to this futuristic world, Blomkamp has already charted a whole new direction with his novelties. It will be released on August 20 in theaters and VOD, Demonic, his first feature film since 2015 with a low performance Chappie, is a low-budget horror film that was produced during the 24-day pandemic. The story of a young woman named Carly (Carly Pope) who is invited by gloomy religious to participate in a cutting-edge technological essay that involves sending her into the comatic mind of her alienated mother (Nathalie Boltt), where it turns out which is an evil entity hides: it is a variation of virtual reality in a demonic possession thriller. Think about it The man of the lawn mower they meet The Exorcist, filmed claustrophobically naked and adorned with many volumetric capture effects.
While he shares his love of science fiction technology with his previous production, Demonic is Blomkamp’s first real foray into terror, and the 41-year-old director confirms that he has long wanted to do something like that. “I’ve always been interested in horror and I’ve always been especially interested in wanting to make a small, self-funded horror film, almost like a challenge, like The Blair Witch Project or Paranormal activity. I never knew when I would do it; I just knew I wanted to do it at some point. So when the pandemic came, it seemed that with the rest of the speed, it would be a good time to try this idea. I think horror is very conducive to a low-budget environment and that you can do things like this that aren’t very expensive. “
Demonic it has several touches reminiscent of the works of James Cameron and David Cronenberg (among others), but the director states that there were no specific creative templates for the film, saying, “I’m not very good at looking out what they are. the other movies doing. It’s much more of an insular process. ”Instead of channeling illustrious ancestors, what he liked was the opportunity to generate the kind of low-end terror he provoked. The Blair Witch Project i Paranormal activity cultural phenomena as well. “Beyond trying to be afraid, the main goal was to create a feeling of tension and fear. I just wanted that superficial tension that was there all the time. These films were inspiring because they had a tight budget, the filmmakers just came out and shot them and got a visceral response from the audience. I thought it was a really interesting thing. “
COVID-19 may have affected the logistics components of Demonic, but the genesis of the film arose from two different creative impulses, which merged perfectly here. “I think the idea was a bunch of separate ideas I had for things I wanted to work on at some point, like volumetric capture, which ended up being VR, and the idea of the Vatican acting on more than a 21st in the last century, buying tech companies, ”he says. “So, in fact, I mixed them up.”
“Beyond trying to be afraid, the main goal was to create a sense of tension and fear.”
As Carly finally discovers, the brains behind her situation are church officials with a decidedly contemporary method of fighting Satan’s minions. As for the development of the film, “the exorcism part was more crucial, just because it’s one of the terror troops that’s easy to get into. It was based on the idea of, we know we want to make a low budget with demonic possession and exorcisms, so how would that be? The involvement of volumetric capture in this — which was a different idea I had — began to generate this idea of virtual reality so that you could have a demon in someone’s mind and people would look for it. It was really a case of fusion of elements that we wanted to put in the pot, while finding out what to shoot during the COVID ”.
As with so many film companies over the past 18 months, DemonicCompletion was complicated by the pandemic, thanks to numerous operational protocols that posed an additional burden for production. “It doesn’t make it easier to shoot something that already has a low budget when you have additional costs because of what is required for an item that normally, pre-pandemic, wouldn’t be there,” he says. “But at the same time, you want to make sure the crew is safe.” Fortunately, Blomkamp and company left the process unscathed, with a single call threatening to derail the film. “We only had a potential scare from COVID with one crew member, and we had to stand on the ground and finish disassembling everything until we got the results from COVID. Because of the way the locations worked, he actually finished everything for two weeks, but it turned out he didn’t have any. “
Neill Blomkamp and Carly Pope on set Demonic
IFC Films
Even if these problems caused inevitable slowdowns (Blomkamp estimates that COVID security measures resulted in a 20-25% loss of efficiency), they had little effect on the finished product, which differs from the terror brothers. through Carly’s VR trips to her mother’s house. digitized awareness of dreams. According to Blomkamp, creating that unreal environment was not a walk in the park, especially for its actors. “They are in this incredibly restrictive camera cage, such as 260 cameras, very close to them,” he explains. “But Carly and Natalie were great in this environment. It was very hard, because there’s the acting part, the emotional part, but also try to make sure that, on a technical level, they really walk around the set properly, which isn’t there, because all you have is a lot of cameras. . these are measures and making sure they reach certain exact positions. Super mathematician. It wasn’t easy, ”he laughs.
This techno-reality feels intimately connected to video games, which is no surprise in view of the fact that Blomkamp is currently collaborating with Gunzilla Games on an AAA multiplayer shooter. Pressed on the relationship between Demonic and games, he explains, “I think the element that makes you feel ingenious is just the fact that the technology works, in fact, with a video game engine. It’s working on Unity, so it’s a game engine. ” As for his approach to designing those haunting sequences, “everything that was a live action was not 100% portable. Everything was Steadicam and it was very controlled. So when we were in virtual reality, I wanted it to be hand-held, to feel loose, and to be a massive environmental change for the audience, so that they felt like they were in virtual reality with the actresses. ”
A volumetric capture sequence a Demonic
IFC Films
Demonic demonstrates that Blomkamp remains committed to the direction of functions, though since then Chappie, has also remained busy with Oats Studios, an independent costume he founded in 2017 for which he directed numerous short films starring Pope, Sigourney Weaver, Dakota Fanning and his favorite main protagonist, Sharlto Copley. Oats has been an outlet for both narrative and technological experimentation for Blomkamp and says that “there is also a third component to Oats, which is trying to build something outside of the film industry that really makes films, which is an interesting idea ”. To achieve this dream, he laughs, requires doing something extremely unpleasant: “Losing a lot of money. I think you would have to lose a lot of money to get there, and then it can work. ”And it’s quick that he added,“ Right now, other people have to lose money. ”
Blomkamp admits that he does not know the final fate of Oats or his own cinematic future, except for the fact that a sequel to Chappie it’s definitely not on the cards (“I don’t think so. I don’t think this universe can be revisited. I don’t see how it will ever happen”). What he tin However, imagining oneself is striking a new balance between the epic action of science fiction of Elisi and the confined claustrophobic suspense of Demonic. “I think I will probably do something [next] that’s bigger, “he reveals.” I think I’ll go back to a bigger movie scale. But I wouldn’t mind going back to something of this size again. I think fluctuating between budget levels and using different skills isn’t bad. ” .