Neill Blomkamp reflects on the Halo film

district-9-mech-unit

The Playlist features Neill Blomkamp's thoughts on how Halo has lead him to where he is today, about to release his second feature length fill "Elysium."

For those so unaware, Neill was set to direct Halo and well into production development before it was canned. 

Here's the tasty bits Neil said:

"I think 'Halo' was a complete blessing in disguise. I have no idea what would've happened to my career if I had done that."

"It really, really, really, really, really happened in a way that I think is pretty lucky for me. I'm lucky that I met Peter Jackson and I'm incredibly lucky that he was the person that allowed 'District 9' to be made. There is absolutely no way on God's Earth that that film would be made in Hollywood without his involvement. Or without him basically dictating that it was going to be me. A first time director, you just can't do that"

"What happened for me was, the collapse of the hornet's nest nightmare that 'Halo' would've been -- and I got to experience that as well, I worked on that thing for six months -- it's like 'good riddance' when it falls over. And then to be more confident in your own ideas, and to work on ['District 9'] and then to work on another idea at the time, it's now reaffirmed for me, you don't need to go and do this whole approach that a lot of directors seem to take. I don't really care if it's not the biggest film. As long as I'm creatively invested in it, I feel like I'm making the right choice. It could be a $5 million film, it doesn't matter. The budget we needed on ['Elysium'] was a lot, but that's because the concept required that."

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