Neill Blomkamp Reddit AMA was a fountain of knowledge, providing insight and behind the scenes knowledge. Highlights of the ask me anything thread surrounded projects that he has worked on in the past and is currently developing as well. Most importantly, Oats Studios.
Blomkamp is well known for being a big name director, heading films like District 9 and Elysium, but has scaled it back for his most recent endeavor. Oats Studios is the director’s brainchild and one of the main purposes for the AMA, as the unique approach to filming has garnered everyone’s attention.
Instead of heading to the silver screen, the director and his company have spent millions of dollars – of his own – to fund the short film formatted series, which will be released in Volumes on Steam. The series will center around Fantasy and Sci-fi oriented ideas, ones often associated with the director already from previous works. Oats Studios also will allow users to download assets used in the film, like models of the monsters, and use them in the well-known gaming engine Unity for whatever they please.
Reddit user Geitsbar asked, “if money wasn’t the main issue, would you want to just keep doing the types of short projects you’ve done with Oats so far, or do you see those projects more as a starting point that you hope to build upon for something more?”
“It’s both. full scale FEATURE FILMS done inside this building (which used to be a kitchen supply store) is the goal without question. Crowd funded, directly with the audience making large scale films for them. – but the smaller pieces like OATS has released so far are an amazing way to be creative and always be working. attempting things, – genuinely seeing if things don’t work, seeing what does work. Like each volume is an album and these are tracks. I want both going forward. The other thing with full scale films, if pre-funded let us take whatever risk we want because they are not going to lose money.”
Another interesting question surrounding Oats Studios arose when user IAamJustAnotherGuy asked the director if he was a fan of Rooster Teeth’s Funhaus, who recently interviewed him about a number of things. His response was that they should come do something for Oats. Adam Kovik – one of Funhaus’ main personalities and editors – responded immediately saying that “his bags were packed.”
There were plenty inquiries into other projects that Blomkamp had been attached to in the past as well, most notably the canceled Halo and Alien films. The director provided some closure for fans regarding the Alien sequel, stating it is “without a pulse,” but that he’d still love to work with Sigourney Weaver more (who starred in on of the Oats short films).
One of the most interesting answers is that he has serious plans to make District 10.
Ok, so with district 10 the basic answer is yes. I want to go back to that world and tell rest of the story with wikus and christopher. the issue right now is that I have many other projects and ideas that I also want to work on and complete….. and most importantly, the exact right REASON to make district 10 needs be very clear. the first film was based so explicitly on real themes and topics from south africa that effected me greatly growing up there, that we need to make sure the next film does not forget that.
The cult classic was released almost a decade ago in 2009 and fans have eagerly been awaiting Christopher to return and save the fully transformed Wikus. At the very least, this AMA proved that Neill Blomkamp is still a fan favorite director, despite how let down a lot of people have been with his recent movies (Chapie & Elysium).
For more information on Oats Studios and his other works, be sure to check back to the site for updates, as well as all of your other Nerdy News and Needs!
