Despite being keen on the project two years ago, Neill Blomkamp offers an uncertain update on District 10. The movie is set to be a sequel to his acclaimed directorial debut District 9, which was set in Johannesburg, South Africa, where an alien spaceship hovers above the city and those onboard are confined to the eponymous internment camp, and focused on a bureaucrat involved in a government relocation of the aliens having to team up with an alien looking to escape to his home planet after exposure to the alien’s fuel begins mutating him. Led by Sharlto Copley, a District 9 sequel has been in talks since the original’s release, though the wait may continue.
While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss the release of Gran Turismo, Blomkamp was asked about whether the chances of District 10 being made were tied to the video game adaptation’s success. In addition to confirming the connection with Sony, Blomkamp offered an uncertain update on the District 9 sequel, admitting he may not be interested in making the follow-up at this point. See what Blomkamp said below:
Yeah, they would be tied to it. I don’t know if it’s getting made or not. I don’t know if I even want to make that right now, but at some point down the line, it’ll probably get made.
Will District 10 Ever Happen?
Blomkamp has teased his ideas for a District 9 sequel since ahead of the original movie’s release, confirming his hopes to make a follow-up, while admitting at various times over the years that he had yet to land on an exact story for the project. The movie’s chances seemed high when in February 2021 he announced that he had begun the scripting process for District 10, with Copley returning to pen the script with him and original co-writer and wife Terri Tatchell.
After over a year of silence, Copley offered an update in August 2022 when he confirmed that discussions were still ongoing with Sony for the sequel, with the trio having completed multiple drafts, though noting that it may not move ahead until after Blomkamp’s commitment to Gran Turismo. Despite this positive progress, Blomkamp’s update above seems to indicate the sequel may have stalled in its development, or that his first foray outside of the sci-fi genre has inspired him to go down a different path.
If District 10‘s chances are indeed tied to Gran Turismo‘s potential success, the sequel may have a tough future ahead as the video game adaptation is garnering mixed reviews from critics. That said, with Blomkamp having a streak of unrealized projects with his scrapped Alien 5 featuring Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley and Michael Biehn’s Hicks, as well as departing from a RoboCop legacy sequel, one can hope that his long-gestating District 9 sequel can break this career trend.
