Neill Blomkamp Biography

Neill Blomkamp (born 17 September 1979) is a South African-Canadian film and advertisement director, writer, producer and animator. Blomkamp employs a documentary-style, hand-held, cinéma vérité technique, blending naturalistic and photo-realistic computer-generated effects. He is best known as the co-writer and director of critically acclaimed District 9 and the science fiction film Elysium. He is based out of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Time named Blomkamp as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2009. Forbes magazine named him as the 21st most powerful celebrity from Africa.

Early life and career

Blomkamp was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. At 16, he met Sharlto Copley, who had also attended Redhill High School in Johannesburg. Copley provided Blomkamp with the use of computers at his production company in order to pursue his passion and talent for 3D animation and design - in return, Blomkamp assisted Copley in creating 3D work for pitches on various projects. His family moved to Vancouver when Blomkamp was 18, where he enrolled in Vancouver Film School. In 2003, Blomkamp was hired to illustrate photo-real future aircraft for Popular Science's "Next century in Aviation" and in 2004 was hired to illustrate "The Future of the Automobile". Blomkamp worked as a visual effects artist at The Embassy Visual Effects in Vancouver as well as Rainmaker Digital Effects. Blomkamp was signed by Toronto commercial house Spy Films.

In 2007, Blomkamp directed a trilogy of live-action short films (known collectively as Landfall) set in the Halo universe, to promote the release of Halo 3.

Blomkamp was then slated to direct his first feature-length film, an adaptation of the Halo series of video games, produced by Peter Jackson. Peter Jackson had come to know about Blomkamp after viewing a reel of his commercial work and shorts shot in his off time. The four shorts that got him noticed included Tetra Vaal, a faux advertisement for a third-world robotic police that established Neill Blomkamp's signature style of mixing lo-fi production with seamless CGI; Alive in Joburg, a gritty "documentary" about extraterrestrials marooned in Johannesburg; Tempbot, an Office Space-esque spoof; and Yellow, a short film based on the colour yellow for Adidas' "Adicolor" campaign, which portrays a globe-trotting android gone rogue.

When funding for the Halo film collapsed, Peter Jackson decided to produce District 9 instead, an adaptation of Blomkamp's earlier short film Alive in Joburg, which had been produced by Hansen and Copley. The film, directed by Blomkamp, starring Copley, and co-written with Blomkamp's wife and production partner Terri Tatchell, was released in mid-August 2009, to widespread critical acclaim, and was later nominated for the 2009 Academy Award for Best Picture, along with nominations for Best Visual Effects, Editing and Adapted Screenplay.

On October 2010, a video was released on the iPad version of Wired Magazine, credited to Neill Blomkamp, which shows an amateur recording of two young men who find a dead mutated creature in a puddle of mud while driving down a countryside road. The creature, a dog-sized mix between a pig and a lizard, presents a tattooed seal on its side that reads "18.12 AGM Heartland Pat. Pend. USA". Also, "AGM Heartland" was trademarked for its use in an entertainment-oriented website. It is yet unknown whether the video holds any relation to Blomkamp's Elysium. On 20 February 2012, a 23 second video clip titled "IS IT DEAD?" appeared on YouTube, featuring Yolandi Visser, of the South African group Die Antwoord, crouching over the creature.

On April 2013, Blomkamp admitted that he was still interested in making a Halo film.

In June 2013 after Neill's Elysium, he has started working on his next comedy sci-fi film Chappie based on his own short Tetra Vaal. Blomkamp will direct the film and Sony Pictures Entertainment (TriStar Pictures) and Media Rights Capital will co-produce and co-finance the film announced on August 13, 2013.

Filmography

Feature films

• District 9 (2009) (co-writer, director)
• Elysium (2013) (writer, director)
• Chappie (2015) (co-writer, director)

Short films

• Tetra Vaal (2004) (director, visual FX)
• Alive in Joburg (2005) (director, writer, visual FX)
• Yellow (2006) (director, visual FX)
• Tempbot (2006) (director)
• Halo: Landfall (2007) (director)

Commercials

• Nike " Crab (2003) / Evolution (2004)
• Citroën C4 " Alive with technology (2004)
• Gatorade " Rain (2006)

Other credits

• Stargate SG-1 (1998) (3D animator)
• First Wave (1998) (3D animator)
• Mercy Point (1998) (3D animator)
• Aftershock: Earthquake in New York (1999) (3D animator)
• Dark Angel (2000) (lead animator)
• Art of Dying music video - Day Survive (2001) (director, visual FX)
• 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001) (lead 3D animator)
• Smallville (2001) (3D animator)
• BV-01 (2005) (special thanks)
• Best Ever Ads 2 (2006) (himself)
• Crossing the Line (2008) (additional director)

Recognition

• 2004, First Boards Awards - "One of the top five directors to watch"
• 2004, Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival - "Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase"
• 2004, Shark Awards (shortlisted)
• 2005, VES awards "Outstanding VFX in a commercial" for Citroen - Alive with technology
• 2008, Cannes Lions 2008 - Film Lions- Grand Prix - Halo: Combat
• 2009, Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Director & Satellite Award for Best Adapted Screenplay - District 9
• 2009, Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay - District 9
• 2009, Won - Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America - District 9
• 2010, Nominated - Academy Award for Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Nomination for Academy Award for Best Picture 2009 - District 9 (Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell)