Out on DVD and Blu-Ray this week, District 9 is a new sci-fi masterpiece from writer/director Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings). The film is a documentary-style account about a race of aliens marooned on earth who have been quarantined in a shantytown, known by humans as District 9, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa.

The film has an “apartheid” metaphor in that the aliens (referred derogatorily by humans as “Prawns” because they look like crustaceans) represent an oppressed minority, all while the humans see the aliens as a nuisance and want to be rid of them once and for all. The film mainly focuses on two main characters; a human who was the head of a relocation program for the aliens, and an alien trying to find a way to return home to his planet.

Special features for the disc include a series of interesting deleted scenes that never made it into the final cut.  Director commentary from Neill Blomkamp shows how the concept of District 9 was turned into a reality. In the special feature “Metamorphosis: The Transformation of Wikus”, we see behind the scenes footage of how the F/X team slowly turned actor Sharlto Copley from a human into a “Prawn.” Two other features include a concept design with production planners into creating the world of District 9 and the dazzling special effects that were generated for the film.

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With director Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 making just over $37 million at the domestic box office this weekend ($7 million more than the production budget), it only makes sense that the studio and crew would be gearing up to return to the project for more. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Blomkamp mentioned that he would love to return to the franchise in a sequel.

”I would do anything to go back to the world of District 9 again,” Director Neil Blomkamp says. ”Or District 10.”

It makes perfect sense for the studio to do a sequel as well, being both cheap to make and lucrative. Also, with the story, the Robocop-style ending leaves the film open for many directions, and possibly many more films. We are even guilty of comparing this film to last year’s Cloverfield in our review, but the film has a similar tone.

The difference in this situation is that Cloverfield ends with pretty much no room for a sequel, unless you were to tell the story again from a different point of view. This would work out in the D9 universe perfectly. No word yet on how or if this will effect production on Jackson and Blomkamp’s Halo film.

There are a few types of Summer blockbusters out there these days. Of course, you’ll have the big “tent pole” films that cost $200 million and make triple that. You’ll also get the ones that cost a fortune and fizzle out fairly quickly. But every once in a while you’ll also get a film that comes virtually out of nowhere and leaves your mouth agape. District 9 is that film.

District 9 takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa, where aliens landed nearly 30 years ago. Since then, they have been subjected to living in slums while their defunct mothership hovers above the city. On the macro level, the world is split between people who wish to embrace the differences of the aliens and people who discriminate against them and wish to kill them. On a micro level, an MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA, making him neither human nor alien.

At it’s core, this film is many things. It’s not just a sci-fi action film. It has some serious undertones from oppression and bigotry to the evil things that man is capable of. It is many things, but if one were to stand out, it would be “smart.” From the first moments of the film where a collection of news and documentary footage helps introduce us to this world where aliens are real and have been inhabiting the planet for some time all the way to the conclusion, this film delivers.

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Sony Pictures has released three new viral videos for Neil Blomkamp’s upcoming sci-fi drama District 9. The film, which is Exec. Produced by Peter Jackson, is one of the upcoming releases we’re really looking forward to here at The Flickcast. In these new videos, we’re given some more information about the aliens who inhabit the quarantined sector of District 9 and the men and women who keep watch on them to protect humanity.

I particularly like the fact that these videos are so well done and obviously indicate the care and attention being paid to the film by the filmmakers and the marketing team at Sony. They obviously feel they’ve got a winner on their hands — and I do to. Actually, I think District 9 will be this years Cloverfield and maybe even better. There, I said it.

Of course, I was one of the people who was skeptical when Peter Jackson initially thought Blomkamp was the right choice to direct the Halo movie, which as we know ended up going nowhere — at least not yet. Who knows, if District 9 does end up a huge success, we may see the Halo movie project resurrected.

Check out the three videos after the jump, courtesy of the folks at Trailer Addict. District 9 hits theaters on August 14.

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Yahoo has just released the first full trailer for District 9, and with it we get a lot more footage of aliens, things blowing up, and the general plot of the film. The first teaser gave us very little to go by, alluding that there were aliens, and they were being held hostage in South Africa. Now we know that they revolt, and cause a lot of havoc in the process.

The film stars Jason Cope, Kenneth Nkosi, and William Allen Young, with Peter Jackson producing and Neill Blomkamp directing. It looks as if it’s meant to utilize elements of Cloverfield with hand-held photography and bigger special effects. The one downfall is that there are gigantic robots, which seem to be everywhere in theaters this summer.

The plot has been under wraps for quite some time, but from what we know now, an alien race has come to earth on a one-way ticket, becoming stranded in Africa. Now seen as yet another mistrusted minority, the “non-humans” live in a dangerous ghetto and labor for little to no pay. But when a human encounters some strange non-human technology that begins to affect him in disturbing ways, his perspective on the situation changes drastically. Click here for the full trailer, and expect to see District 9 in theaters August 14.