{"id":9496,"date":"2010-01-11T23:15:29","date_gmt":"2010-01-12T05:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/?p=9496"},"modified":"2010-01-11T23:15:29","modified_gmt":"2010-01-12T05:15:29","slug":"neill-blomkamp-talks-making-district-9-and-the-dangers-of-big-budget-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/2010\/01\/neill-blomkamp-talks-making-district-9-and-the-dangers-of-big-budget-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"Neill Blomkamp Talks Making DISTRICT 9 and the Dangers of Big Budget Pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a> <\/div>\n

After reading the LA Times interview<\/a> with DISTRICT 9’s director Neill Blomkamp <\/a>a thought comes to mind: there’s a man who has his shit together.<\/p>\n

GB:<\/strong> What films have you liked recently?<\/em><\/p>\n

NB: <\/strong>My favorite film of the year was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Hurt Locker.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I really loved it. I really liked \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Inglourious Basterds\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a lot. One of my favorites recently was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Let the Right One In.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The way it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s put together. I love that film. The fact that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re making an American version, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of everything I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been saying about Hollywood. Why not just watch the real one? Do we need a remake of that film now? They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re remaking \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oldboy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d too. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nGB:<\/strong> What did the “District 9” experience teach you about casting?<\/em><\/p>\n

NB:<\/strong> I’m not particularly interested in working with movie stars. It depends on where you come from, I suppose. Why are you making films? The reason I want make films is because they convey ideas. I think some directors make films because they want to hang out with movie stars and be part of Hollywood. They want to be a star themselves. I’m not interested in that at all. I think the reason you use an actor is if they are right for the role. Most of the high-profile stars tend to be good actors. That’s probably what led to their fame. So if they are right for the movie, you can certainly use them. But I don’t want to, not at all. Stardom and Hollywood overpower the ideas and the film. That being said, it’s hard finding very good performers who aren’t well-known.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

GB:<\/strong> So it’s not the familiarity of the face that bothers you, it’s the physics of stardom and Hollywood.<\/em><\/p>\n

NB: <\/strong>Yeah exactly. That’s it. I don’t want egos and personalities on the set that make it more difficult to make the film. I don’t want people who take the focus away from the movie and the ideas behind the movie.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(parts 1<\/a>, 2<\/a>,3<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After reading the LA Times interview with DISTRICT 9’s director Neill Blomkamp a thought comes to mind: there’s a man who has his shit together. GB: What films have you liked recently? NB: My favorite film of the year was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Hurt Locker.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I really loved it. I really liked \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Inglourious Basterds\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a lot. One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,56],"tags":[1831,1422,1829,1830,1420,473],"class_list":["post-9496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-movies","tag-big-budget-pressure","tag-district-9","tag-hollywood","tag-la-times","tag-neill-blomkamp","tag-science-ficition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9496"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9508,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9496\/revisions\/9508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}