Amidst all of yesterday’s excitement about Neill Blomkamp’s first post-District 9 film, the far-future thriller **Elysium, getting a hefty $120 million cash influx and distribution support from Sony, one little detail slipped by almost unnoticed: Media Rights Capital, which set up Elysium, and helped get the contract sealed with Sony, has signed an overall deal with the director and has just flashed the thumbs up on another new title, the even more mysterious Chappie.
Beyond that name, there’s pretty much nothing to go on, since the ever-secretive Blomkamp is A) busy getting ready to make Elysium and B) wouldn’t really let anything slip anyway. All Deadline has been able to find out is that Chappie is not part of the new distribution deal with Sony (though you’ve got to figure that they’ll get the first look at the script) and that the director plans to make the movie once Elysium is completed and in cinemas around late 2012. Oh, and it’s another original SF concept.
For now, though, Blomkamp’s focus will be on the Matt Damon/Sharlto Copley/Jodie Foster film, which is set 100 years in the future, and is loaded with both gadgets and social critique. He’s starting real pre-production in April with a shoot set to kick off in July in Vancouver, before the crew moves to Mexico City.