Plucked from relative obscurity by Mary Parent, then-production chief of Universal Pictures, Blomkamp, who was working in visual effects and directing commercials and shorts, landed a plum gig for what would have been his directorial debut: the big-budget adaptation of the shoot-'em-up video game Halo to be produced by Jackson.
But when that project imploded in 2006, Jackson decided to "godfather" Blomkamp through the process of directing a film anyway. Jackson's wife and frequent collaborator, Fran Walsh, suggested that Blomkamp adapt one of his short films, "Alive in Joburg," into a feature and Jackson helped him shape the script while his production company put together the independent financing. The result: the $30-million "District 9," in theaters this August, about aliens who land on Earth; they are segregated into an alien ghetto and forced to work for humans who revile them as refugees.
