Blomkamp (l) flanked by Peter Jackson and lead actor Sharlto Copley at CCSD: Jackson has helped Blomkamp see the forest through the trees as a filmmaker.

BD: What was it like for you directing a feature after Halo collapsed, but with Peter Jackson still very much behind you?

NB: I mean, look, I had worked with Weta Workshop for five months doing Halo, so when that collapsed, Peter told me that he had been through this process before with a few projects that collapsed. I'll help you get another one going and Fran Walsh suggested the idea of taking the short and turning that into a feature, which sounded like a great idea, so I did that.

BD: So it hadn't occurred to you before to turn Alive in Joburg into a feature?

NB: Not then. Before Halo, it had occurred to me. For some reason, when he said, "Go and do another film and we'll set it up and you can just keep going," my mind started going in the direction of some other science fiction film. So I went straight into District 9 almost without thinking about Halo. And I've been directing that film for two-and-a-half years and now I'm at the end.

BD: What was the experience like?

NB: It's grueling: You've gotta have a lot of stamina, but it's rewarding: it's like climbing a mountain. Once you get to the top, you can see over it.

BD: Crew members say it's always nice to have a visual effects expert at the helm who not only speaks the same language but can also clearly convey story and character. Was this your experience?

NB: Yeah, it's probably easier to get the end result that you want because you speak the same language so you can get in there and provide a description of what you're looking for with greater accuracy.

BD: What were some of your movie influences that helped inform District 9?

NB: Well, there is no one film that I can say influenced District 9 on a conscious, surface level. It's a case of all of my favorite science fiction films blending together. You know, even videogames. And it was that nugget of science fiction that I placed in Johannesburg. I guess at the top of the list would be the first two Aliens, the Terminators, Predator and Robocop -- all the '80s hardcore, sci-fi/action films. And I don't know whether the film has that feeling or not for the audience, but I wanted it to have that harsh 1980s kind of vibe -- I didn't want it to feel glossy and slick.