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" A lot of parts of L.A. are interchangeable with suburbs in Joburg. Very big, ostentatious houses with palm trees and lawns. Lawns are very important. Never underestimate lawns. "
Neill Blomkamp
Important
Underestimate
Trees
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" The first film that I can remember seeing where, like, I just couldn't stop watching it - and it didn't necessarily make me want to be a director because I was so young, but it made me know that that's what I wanted to be doing - was 'Alien.' And I saw that when I was probably just over 10 years old. "
Neill Blomkamp
Seeing
Remember
Alien
" If you're not observing the world around you, in some sense you're not really an artist because then that means you're just replicating other people's stuff, or, I don't even know what you're doing. "
Neill Blomkamp
You
Artist
Doing
" There are loads of sociopolitical, racial, class and future-planet situations that really interest me, but I'm not really interested in making a film about them in a film that feels like reality because people view that in a different way. I like using science fiction to talk about subjects through the veneer of science fiction. "
Neill Blomkamp
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View
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" If something is as smart as you, do you treat it differently if it isn't a human? "
Neill Blomkamp
Smart
Differently
Human
" 'District 9', 'Elysium' and 'Chappie' were all born out of some visual concept first. 'Chappie' is the imagery, because I think I'm a visual person first, of this ridiculous robot character. It's much more comedy based and in an unusual setting. "
Neill Blomkamp
Think
Person
Comedy
" A lot of America is kind of done. People have been making films about it for 100 years. Everything to me feels used up. But Jo-Burg feels unbelievably inspirational to me. "
Neill Blomkamp
Done
Me
America
" High-level actors can be all about their close-ups and the size of their trailers. I'd heard these horror stories of how a really powerful actor can come in and change your script. "
Neill Blomkamp
Change
Horror
Size
" I just watch movies I like over and over. It seems to be a lot of sci-fi stuff. My favorites are probably - besides the first two 'Alien' films, I watch '2001', I watch 'Star Wars', the first ones, because those actually had a huge effect on me as well, 'Empire Strikes Back' especially. "
Neill Blomkamp
Movies
Watch
Alien
" I think that 'Elysium' the movie is unrealistic, with the space station and everything. I think 'Elysium' the metaphor is completely realistic: it's exactly where we're going. "
Neill Blomkamp
Space
Everything
Think
" There's no question that how Johannesburg operates is what made me interested in the idea of wealth discrepancy. 'Elysium' could be a metaphor for just Jo'burg, but it's also a metaphor for the Third World and the First World. And in science fiction, separation of wealth is a really interesting idea to mess with. "
Neill Blomkamp
Science
Interesting
World
" I still really love the world and the universe and the mythology of 'Halo.' If I was given control, I would really like to do that film. But that's the problem. When something pre-exists, there's this idea of my own interpretation versus 150 other people involved with the film's interpretation of the same intellectual property. "
Neill Blomkamp
Problem
World
Control
" I just want to make films that have enough of a budget to pull off high-level imagery but also have a budget that is low enough that I can do what I want. "
Neill Blomkamp
Budget
Enough
I Can
" What I do is spend too much time thinking. Most of the time I just walk around annoyed. Would I describe myself as relatively happy, I suppose, but society gets to me. And the people that have mastered life seem to not care, and then they die, and then the grenade goes off. "
Neill Blomkamp
Myself
Walk
Time
" 'District 9' was a singular anti-Apartheid metaphor, and 'Elysium' is a more general metaphor about immigration and how the First World and Third World meet. But the thing that I like the most about the metaphor is that it can be scaled to suit almost any scenario. "
Neill Blomkamp
Meet
World
More
" I think the world of 'District 9' has a lot of race and oppression-based ideas that I would still like to explore in that world. "
Neill Blomkamp
Think
World
Explore
" Obviously I don't want to make a film that offends people, but the whole world is so politically correct - I'm not going to not do something because it may be politically incorrect. At some point, the metaphors and allegories break down. They disappear, and you just have science fiction. "
Neill Blomkamp
Down
People
Science
" I never really think of something in terms of what not to do. It's always what's appealing or what's cool. "
Neill Blomkamp
Cool
Think
Always
" Satire also allows you to make fun of every different aspect. It allows you to make fun of both sides. It allows you to make fun of everything, really, so you can do it in a harmless way. "
Neill Blomkamp
You
You Can Do It
Way
" The main stuff I like is from the late '60s to the early '90s. That's the stuff I love. It's the James Cameron's and the Paul Verhoven stuff. I guess when I was younger, 'Star Wars' had an influence. "
Neill Blomkamp
Late
Early
Influence
" If you just compare South Africans to the rest of the world, I think that white South Africans, and especially English-speaking white South Africans, are exactly the same as Brits or Australians or New Zealanders or Canadians or Americans. "
Neill Blomkamp
You
New
Rest
" I think the reason you use an actor is if they are right for the role. Most of the high-profile stars tend to be good actors. That's probably what led to their fame. So if they are right for the movie, you can certainly use them. But I don't want to, not at all. Stardom and Hollywood overpower the ideas and the film. "
Neill Blomkamp
Stars
Fame
Ideas
" I think our problems are inherently unsolvable. We need to change our genetic make-up or create computers that will think us out of it. I don't think humans are able to deal with what we have. "
Neill Blomkamp
Think
Computers
Change
" I think that, if there are topics that are just on people's minds, things manifest into reality out of the sort of global consciousness of being aware of those topics. "
Neill Blomkamp
Minds
Manifest
People
" I don't put any pressure on myself in terms of what people or fans do or don't want. It really just doesn't occur to me. I honestly just want to make the films I want to see as a fan. The film will survive or fail in my mind by how much I like it. Having said that, everyone wants their films to do well and to be well-received. "
Neill Blomkamp
Me
Said
Pressure
" I actually think Johannesburg represents the future. My version of what I think the world is going to become looks like Johannesburg. "
Neill Blomkamp
Think
World
Looks
" I think naturally I'm a very visual kind of person. If I wasn't in filmmaking, I'd be in something related to visuals. And I used to actually work as a visual-effects artist. "
Neill Blomkamp
Artist
Filmmaking
Kind
" The only genre of movie that I could see making that doesn't have anything magical or otherworldly about it would be a war film. I'm very interested in history, and a war film could be something that would lure me in. "
Neill Blomkamp
Me
Magical
War
" I grew up as an artist. Science fiction allows for design and creatures and guns and all the stuff that I like as well. So I think most of the films I make, I'm sure, will be in that category. But I can also see myself making a film like 'Black Hawk Down,' and I could also totally do horror. "
Neill Blomkamp
Black
Think
Myself
" I have zero strategy for my career - like, zero. I could get as much satisfaction about doing a $20,000 shot film the same way I could do a $100 million film with a bunch of effects. "
Neill Blomkamp
Doing
Career
Satisfaction
" I don't want egos and personalities on the set that make it more difficult to make the film. I don't want people who take the focus away from the movie and the ideas behind the movie. "
Neill Blomkamp
Difficult
Want
People