Written Interview: Neill Blomkamp
Interview in I Am Rogue with screenwriter-director Neill Blomkamp whose newest movie Elysium opens this weekend.
ON HOW HE CAME UP WITH THE IDEA FOR THE MOVIE
“It’s like one of these organic things that you never really know when they begin or end to a certain degree. I got arrested in Tijuana and it wasn’t really fair because I hadn’t done anything. To say I got shaken down would be a better description, I think. I ended up walking quite close to the U.S. border at night with Black Hawks flying up and down because of the naval base. That was when I was twenty-five, so that was before District 9. I always thought that that image and that concept, and that an hour before I was on the other side of the fence, stuck with me so much that I thought someday that would turn into something. Essentially Elysium really is that.”
ON THE RUMOR HE ORIGINALLY WANTED TO CAST EMINEM IN THE LEAD ROLE
“Well, the fact that that came out was slightly erroneous, only in the sense that the version of Elysium that I wanted Eminem for was not this film. It was a very different version. When I came up with the idea after District 9 I was very much in the sociological mindset of just this entire Tijuana border-fence kind of thing. Growing up in South Africa I was just interested in it and I knew that I wanted to make a science fiction film about the haves and the have-nots. The original script that I had was purposefully much lower budget. The set up was completely different. There was no space habitat. The way that the rich lived was this very cool idea that I, one day, want to turn into something else, because I like it so much. But it was totally different to this film.”
“In that low budget edgier, stranger film, I wanted an unusual star. That’s when he was approached. But then what happened was the concept that I’m talking about that I liked, it never felt right for the story. It wasn’t really designed for a haves, and have-nots kind of story. It kept not feeling right so I shelved that, and then I came up with the idea of a physical ring that you go to and is lined with Beverly Hills mansions. The second that happened was that I jacked the budget up by $60 million. That changed the whole way I thought of it. Then I was still apprehensive to use stars, but I thought if it cost more to get the ring made, it costs more anyway, so why not try to make it more of a cinematic experience rather than some under the radar kind of film. So my whole thinking kind of changed and then I went through a list of people and Matt [Damon] really was the only guy on this list. Because a lot of other people come with … I’m just fearful of them messing with the script or doing something else, and Damon has such a good reputation that way. So that’s the story.”
For more of the interview, go here.