“DISTRICT 9” DIRECTOR NOW TAKES AUDIENCES TO “ELYSIUM”
Movie Release
From
Neill Blomkamp, the acclaimed director of the Oscar Best Picture nominee
“District 9,” comes the futuristic action-thriller “Elysium” starring Matt
Damon and Jodie Foster.
Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures |
In
the year 2154, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy, who live on a
pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an
overpopulated, ruined planet. The people of Earth are desperate to escape the
crime and poverty that is now rampant throughout the land. The only man with
the chance to bring equality to these worlds is Max (Damon), an ordinary guy in
desperate need to get to Elysium. With his life hanging in the balance, he
reluctantly takes on a dangerous mission – one that pits him against Elysium’s
Secretary Delacourt (Foster) and her hard-line forces – but if he succeeds, he
could save not only his own life, but millions of people on Earth as well.
In
2009, Neill Blomkamp burst onto the scene with his first feature film,
“District 9.” It was an enormous critical and commercial success: critics
praised Blomkamp’s filmmaking style, and audiences around the world turned out
to the box office to support the film’s originality and innovation. But the reason
it resonated was that the movie had themes that grabbed the audience: the way
the film seamlessly blended a genre alien-invasion movie with biting and
relevant social commentary pleased both moviegoing audiences and members of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who nominated the movie for
Oscars® for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
In
his new film, “Elysium,” Blomkamp has drawn two distinct and separate worlds:
an overpopulated, ruined Earth, and Elysium, a man-made space station for the
extremely wealthy. While in 2013, six astronauts live and work on the
international space station orbiting about 250 miles above the surface of the
Earth, 150 years from now, in Blomkamp’s vision, those humble beginnings will
expand to become a home with the best of everything for the rich. “The idea, in
a way, is ludicrous,” says Blomkamp. “The idea of taking up stone, and mortar,
and concrete, and swimming pools – and everything you’d need to build these
mansions in a space station – is satire. It just reinforces the central idea of
the film – the people of Elysium have unimaginable wealth, and they use those
resources to build a separate, synthetic, almost hermetic environment for
themselves. In that way, Elysium is the reverse of an alien-invasion story –
it’s still about human beings trying to protect a way of life, but instead of
fighting for Earth, they do it by going into space.”
“I
want to blow things up as much as I want to make films that are about serious
topics,” Blomkamp says. “I’m more of a visual artist than anything else. I
don’t want to make movies that are too serious – I like action and visual
imagery, and that’s where it starts for me. But I’m also interested in
politics, so once I’ve set up the world and start getting into character and
story, the political ideas that intrigue me work their way in there. The
subjects that interest me tend to be large, sociological concepts, and I like
the idea of making films about those concepts in ways that aren’t heavy-handed
or preachy – I hope that putting these topics in this setting will let the
audience look at them from a different perspective. The most important thing to
me is that the movie is entertaining, but I like to put a worthwhile story
underneath, so it isn’t just pure popcorn.”
Just
as “District 9” explored ideas of social justice, class separation, and race
relations, “Elysium” asks important questions about where we are now in a
context of where we are going. “The entire film is an allegory,” Blomkamp says.
“I tend to think a lot about the topic of wealth discrepancy and how that
affects immigration, and I think the further we go down the path that we are
on, the more the world will represent the one in “Elysium.” In that sense, I
think the questions that underlie the film are quite accurate.”
In
fact, Blomkamp says that the heart of the conflict is more real than one might
realize. “When people see the wealth of Elysium back-to-back with the poverty
of Earth, I think some will think that it’s more extreme than reality – and it
is not. The two things exist, on Earth, right now,” he says. “In Mexico City,
in Johannesburg, in Rio, you have pockets of great wealth, gated communities,
amidst a sea of poverty. And I think that’s where the cities of the US are
going to end up, too – that’s why the movie is set in Los Angeles. But that
disparity can’t last. And I don’t know what we’re going to get – whether we’re
going to pull ourselves forward or self-implode. Elysium is the fork in the
road.”
Opening
across the Philippines on Sept. 04, “Elysium” is
distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing
International. Visit www.columbiapictures.com.ph to see the latest trailers, get
free downloads and play free movie games.
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