For Neill Blomkamp’s next slice of sci-fi freshness, Chappie, he’s tapping into a more comic vein that was evident in either **District 9 **and Elysium. Both of those have wit and laughs, but at the end of the day there’s only so much levity to be mined from the sight of Matt Damon being drilled into an exosuit. The film has a new poster timed with Comic-Con and it’s a bit of a doozy.
The director rolled cameras in Johannesburg at the end of last year, with a cast that includes Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver, Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Ninja, Yolandi Visser, Jose Pablo Cantillo and Brandon Auret, who is voicing the main character. The metallic dude it’s named for is shaping up to be the cutest ‘droid since Marvin, albeit in a grungy, lo-fi way.
Chappie, penned by Blomkamp and his old District 9 co-writer Terri Tatchell, sees the title character kidnapped at birth by two gangsters and becoming the adopted son of a strange, dysfunctional family. He’s a preternaturally gifted prodigy who happens to be a robot.
How that all parlays into the story remains to be seen, but Blomkamp is promising strong visuals and plenty of comedy. “District 9, Elysium and Chappie were all born out of some visual concept first," he told **Empire **in 2012. “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.”
**Chappie **will make its bow in the UK cinemas on March 6, 2015.