Peter Jackson takes us inside 'District 9' and talks about 'The Hobbit'

Peter Jackson at Comic-Con international 2009

For fans of sci-fi/fantasy movies, few filmmakers are as revered as Peter Jackson, the mastermind of the "Lord of the Rings" movies. The Oscar-winning director, writer and producer made his first appearance at Comic-Con International in San Diego this year, and his presence was the most talked-about highlights of the event. On July 24, Jackson participated in a panel discussion for "District 9," a sci-fi movie that he produced and is getting an avalanche of praise from almost everyone who’s seen the film. ("District 9" was shown in its entirety at a special Comic-Con screening, and the buzz is so huge for the movie, that "District 9" is expected to be one of the biggest sleeper hits of the year.) Most critics who’ve seen "District 9" have noted that the movie stands out because it doesn’t follow the usual clichés.

Set in South Africa, "District 9" tells the story of how aliens who came to Earth more than 20 years ago. But instead of invading Earth with war-like attacks, the aliens became refugees that have been segregated by humans into an undesirable area called District 9. Tensions between the aliens and humans reach a fever pitch when Wikus van der Merwe (played by Sharlto Copley), a field operative sent to help control the aliens, gets infected by a strange virus that is changing his DNA, and he becomes the most wanted man in the world.

Aside from suspenseful action, special effects and compelling alien creatures, "District 9" also offers a social commentary on racism, politics and ethics in new technology. The movie is also the first feature film for Copley and writer/director Neill Blomkamp, both of whom joined Jackson on the "District 9" panel at Comic-Con. Before taking questions from a moderator and audience members, Jackson made an introduction in which he gave an update on his highly anticipated big-screen version of "The Hobbit," which Jackson is producing.

Neill Blomkamp, Peter Jackson and Sharlto Copley at Comic-Con International 2009

Jackson: It’s so much getter being here than being a talking head on a screen. I get to see you guys, which is fantastic. All this geek power. I wish you could take all the amount of energy and bottle it and give it to Hollywood executives to drink. I’m here to introduce "District 9," a film I’m very, very proud of.

But just before I get under way with that, I know you’re probably going to have a lot of questions about "The Hobbit." You probably want to know that Bilbo Baggins will be played by [he purposely makes a static-type noise], and I think he’s going to be really good. I just thought before we get going with ‘District 9," I’d give you a little bit of an update on "The Hobbit."

Everything is a process, a pipeline. We’re about three or four weeks away of delivering our first draft of the first movie to Warner Bros., because the film’s not greenlit yet. You know, we have to submit a script, the studio has to read the script and like it. And once we have a script, we can then do a budget and we can figure out how much the films are going to cost and the studio has to then agree and greenlight the movie. There’s a process that we haven’t even got to the point that we’re greenlit yet. So if any of you want to see "The Hobbitt," you can drop Warner Bros. a line and encourage them to be kind to us.

But I know there’s been a lot of speculation about casting and who’s playing different roles. I just want to be able to say, because it may avoid some of the questions later on, we haven’t gotten to the stage where we can offer anybody a role yet, because obviously we have to be greenlit, we have to have the authority to be able to make offers to actors, and we have to be able to give them a schedule of when we want them to work and how long we they need to work for. And obviously, actors are going to want to read a script, and we have to have a script ready for them. So we’re still three or four weeks away from delivering that draft. Then we can start the process of the budget. Probably in about two months is when we’re going we’ll be able to start to offer people roles. So despite everything you might have read and all the gossip and everything else, literally, honestly, [we] have not offered anyone a role in this film at this stage.

We are doing two ["Hobbit"] movies, just to clarify … because one of the things that is interesting, as you know, is that [J.R.R.] Tolkein wrote "The Hobbit" first in 1936, and then about 20 years later, he published "The Lord of the Rings." And he expanded and developed the world of Middle Earth way bigger and larger and more detailed than he knew about when he wrote "The Hobbit," and he did a lot of retrospective detailing. So "The Lord of the Rings," the novel, contains a lot of information about what was happening during the years of "The Hobbit" and events that were happening outside of that particular storyline and the things that were happening behind-the-scenes at Middle Earth and the geopolitics and things. And so Tolkein never got to combine them together in one book.

Sharlto Copley, Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp at the Comic-Con premiere of "District 9"

But one of the things we were really excited about when we got to thinking about [doing "The Hobbit" movie] is we can take that expanded information that he developed later on and we can apply it to "The Hobbit" and make it fuller and more epic and put "The Hobbit" in the context of the greater activity that is happening in Middle Earth at that time. To do all that, we figured that we needed two epic films to be able to really tell that story … I just wanted to clear a couple of things up.

And now we should get on to "District 9" … It’s a film I’m very, very proud of … It was an unusual experience for me, because one of the things that Neill [Blomkamp] — who you’ll get to meet — our director wanted to do was to make it very much and improvisation. The film would be improvised, it wouldn’t be based on a screenplay, it wouldn’t have a rigid written dialogue that had to be followed. He wanted to make it spontaneous to some degree. Even though we had a storyline — we were following a pre-determined storyline — he wanted it to have a very real feeling. So it’s hard to find actors who can improvise. It’s a very, very difficult talent. And even very good actors who are used to delivering scripts, they dry up when you ask them to improvise.

And so Neill always said to us that he had a buddy of his who he met in high school in South Africa, and who he wanted to play the lead role. It’s somebody who hasn’t really acted before, and I’m going to introduce him now. And I can just tell you that when you see the movie, you’re going to be absolutely blown away by his performance. So let’s introduce Sharlto Copley. [Copley walks onstage to applause. Jackson then takes photos of the audience.] Sorry, I’m just going to a take a photo of two. Smile! … This is a moment to remember for the rest of my life.

And now let me introduce the director of "District 9." If anyone was born to make movies, it’s Neill Blomkamp. So please welcome Neill.

Sharlto Copley in "District 9"

Peter, can you talk about how you started out making a movie version of the video game "Halo" but then ended up making "District 9" instead?

Jackson: It was a Universal and Fox co-production, and we were developing it with Mary Parent, who’s an executive at Universal, whom we worked with [on] "[King] Kong," and had a great relationship. And the idea was that we’d produce it in New Zealand, and we’d use the Weta, the visual effects companies that we have.

From the very beginning with "Halo," we wanted to find a new director, somebody who was fresh, original and would bring a really interesting spin to the film. I just wanted someone that would make a film that would excite me and be a version of "Halo" that I’d be interested in seeing. Mary called up one day and said she’d be sending us a DVD of short movies and commercials that was made by an exciting filmmaker that she had uncovered — and it was Neill.

Neill had done a bunch of short movies and commercials, and this DVD arrived, and we were suitably impressed, I mean really impressed by what we saw. Mary immediately jumped on a plane with Neill, and flew down to New Zealand. We were just putting the finishing touches to "King Kong." I was directing "The Lovely Bones" next, which is why I was producing "Halo."

Neill, we thought, would be an absolutely terrific choice to direct ["Halo"]. So Neill came down to New Zealand with his partner and child, and basically became a New Zealander for several months. And "Halo" basically died, dropped dead on its feet due to studio politics — nothing to do with Neill or the project. We hadn’t delivered the script yet; we hadn’t delivered a budget. There was just this weird political situation that was outside our control …

Basically, the film dropped dead on its feet, which is a pretty horrible thing. You committed emotionally to a film, you got excited about it. This was a film you wanted to see badly, and Neill was doing a terrific job with conceptual art and monsters and creatures. We’ve got all those "Halo" stuff that we’ve got down in New Zealand, locked away in cabinets that no one’s ever seen, really quite stunning — all supervised by Neill.

Neill Blomkamp and Sharlto Copley on the set of "District 9"

The movie fell over, and we got disillusioned about what happened, and we also felt terrible, because we were trying to godfather the movie and help Neill get his first feature film made — and this is what happened. The whole thing died. God, how bad do you feel when that happens? This was as good as we could do in help on a film that never got made.

So we immediately thought, "Well, why don’t we take control of the situation in whatever way we’re able to?" We suggested the idea of working on an original idea —something we could own, that we weren’t beholden to studio politics, keep the budget low, and we hopefully raise the money independently and let’s just turn this whole creative energy that was being spent on "Halo" and put it directly in a different project.

Neill had made a short film called "Alive in Jo’burg," which you can see … on YouTube and various websites. It was a really terrific idea that we thought would make a great feature film. Neill, Fran [Walsh, Jackson’s partner] and myself started working on just ideas to flesh out "Alive in Jo’burg" into a feature-length [film].

And that was really the genesis of "District 9." It happened very quickly. We woke up in the morning thinking we were making "Halo," and we went to bed that night making "District 9." It was like this sudden switch-around. But, you know, fate determined that is what was going to happen. I really believe in fate, and here we are with "District 9," a film we’re very, very proud of. So it worked out for the best, as far as I’m concerned.

David James and Neill Blomkamp on the set of "District 9"

Neill, why did you decide to make "District 9" in a pseudo-documentary style?

Blomkamp: I think the main reason for wanting to do that is because I really like the idea of science fiction that feels real. Because I like sci-fi so much and I wanted to make a science-fiction film, I kind of wanted to see it in a way that kind of felt as realistic and grounded as possible. So in order to do that, I thought using some sort of real-life footage, whether it’s news footage or hand-held documentary filmmakers or security cameras — as much real stuff that we associate as the real media world and not filmmaking would help make it feel real. That was the approach; that was the idea, right from the beginning. Even the short film ["Alive in Jo’burg"] has that in it.

Neill, this film tackles a lot of social issues. Did being raised in South Africa have an influence on you and how you made "District 9"?

Blomkamp: Yeah. Huge. I think even aside from some of the issues that it raises, it is ultimately a Hollywood thrill ride more than any sort of political statement. I think growing up in South Africa had a huge hand in seeing science fiction that I loved as a kid, that everyone here loved, placed in an environment that was slightly unusual and that environment is one that I grew up in. It’s just that I grew up there while I was watching "Alien" and "2001," and I thought it would be cool to put that sci-fi Western fiction into South Africa. It’s image-based originally. I just wanted to see it. And because of South Africa’s racially charged political background, that’s the natural place to go for segregation and everything else.

Sharlto Copley in "District 9"

Sharlto, you haven’t done a ton of acting before …

Copley: [He says jokingly] In front of the mirror I have

But you have to carry this film. Were you initially nervous about that?

Copley: Not really. I hadn’t acted, as you say, but I was a filmmaker from a very young age. From like the age of 10, probably like a lot of people here as well, I was making films from whatever you could find and often putting myself and my friends in them. So I’ve done a lot of characterizations, if you will. I was always the person doing accents and prank phone calls and that kind of stuff.

Blomkamp: He’s like Borat! He’s like the South Africa Borat!

Copley: I convinced one of my best friends that I was in the witness protection program, like a 10-year-old friend of mine. That didn’t go so well afterward. So I actually did have that ability. Obviously, knowing Neill, we actually did "Alive in Jo’burg" in 2005, which I produced with him at that point. So the concept had a lot in common, and Neill and I very similar emotional feelings about what we’d grown up with in South Africa. So I think when it came down to shooting ["District 9"], it was a very normal situation, actually. I never felt nervous or stressed or pressured.

The Peter Jackson point, you don’t think when you’re making this little movie with no money and a shoestring, and the next thing you know, Peter’s coming and saying, "You’ve got to make [the movie]." That was the part that was a little intimidating. It was inspiring and it was humbling at the same time. You’re kind of inspired, because where the industry is going, it’s easier to make things nowadays, which means it’s more competitive, but you can get seen and you can get through. And it was humbling in a sense for myself as an actor, knowing that there was no way I could’ve made that situation happen. As [Peter Jackson] was saying earlier about fate and just kind of sticking with yourself and just trusting that flowing with life. I feel very blessed to be here today.

Sharlto Copley in "District 9"

Are you ready to be a movie star?

Copley: You know, I don’t know about that. Like the whole thing is kind of weird to me. It’s so much easier to be in front of the camera though. It’s so much more stress-free.

Blomkamp: If I remember correctly, you did keep asking me when we were filming when sthe fame would begin.

Copley: That was the standing joke between us. We all this thing where we were like … he would see when I would say no … I was really pushing myself. And day one comes, there’s this scene …

Blomkamp: Which has been cut.

Copley: Which is cut out of the film, conveniently and interestingly. It’s not in the film now. The first day arrives, and the wardrobe lady is there, I’m feeling confident, I’m not nervous, as I was saying, and she takes out this little flesh-colored sack, like a little bag. She said, "This is a jewel bag, for when you’re in the bath." I said, "Are you serious?" Literally, it was a flesh-colored sack … I don’t know how graphic I could be. And literally, day one was sitting around with this little sack around my private parts, with little drawstrings as well — like you could make a little bow on it. I was like, "Dude, come on! He’s going to shoot from the waist up anyway. Why do I have a sack?"

Blomkamp: It was necessary.

Copley: I thought, "Fine, they’re testing me. Everyone’s wondering if he’s going to do it." So I did.

Blomkamp: Of course, it was cut.

Copley: I don’t know if it was because of how gross it looked or if it was a whole setup the whole time.

Blomkamp: It was a setup.

Copley: No, seriously, was it? Oh f*ck! [He laughs.]

It was the whole sex setup. You fell for it.

Blomkamp: Jeez, man!

Mr. Jackson, you started out doing horror movies. Are you looking to get back into that genre?

Jackson: Yeah, I’d actually love to. Watching Neill do "District 9" has connected me back to the fun of making low-budget movies. It’s pretty stressful in some regards, and it’s hard, because you’re always fighting against this budget; you have to tailor the movie to suit the budget. But there’s a degree of freedom and a degree of risk-taking that you’re can do when you’re not dealing with these huge blockbuster-type budgets. There’s a terrific lot of fun. It’s got me itching again.

I’ve got a couple of years coming up where Guillermo [del Toro] is going to be directing "The Hobbit," and I’m not going to be on the set, because he doesn’t need me there. I don’t have any role to play on the set. It’s his movie. And I’m going to be sitting and sort of twiddling my thumbs and I’m starting to think, "Maybe I should find a little low-budget horror movie or something that I can just be making in the meantime." You never know. I have a couple of projects that I’m developing, but certainly I’d love to get back into that world again.

An alien in "District 9"

Neill, where did you find inspiration in how the aliens look and act in "District 9"?

Blomkamp: The inspirations for the aliens and for all the science-fiction aspects of the film in general, I think it’s a whole bunch of science fiction floating around in my head form the time I was a kid — probably all your favorite films as well that are in that genre that have been brewing and floating around in my head. And the fact that I was so aware of putting that kind of sci-fi in Africa meant that I wanted that kind of science fiction, on a design basis, to feel kind of familiar. It’s almost like the South African portion of it is the alien part and the science fiction is something we’ve seen before, in a way.

So in terms of the hardware — the ships and the vehicles and the guns — that’s where the design cues came from. But the aliens themselves, where all the ideas come from, in terms of the visual design there, was that they were insects. And the reason they were insects in design was because in the movie they have this … We don’t really go into it that much in the film. I wish there was a way to go more into the back story of "District 9," because it’s so rich and a dense sort of universe.

But the idea is that the aliens are sort of like an insect hive, and they’ve lost their queen of their operational of society. And they’re kind of aimless and they don’t have any guided direction, because they are the drones. They are these biological drones, like termites or ants. And I really wanted that. And if that’s what these aliens are, from a biological standpoint — forgetting about apartheid or anything else — then they’re insects. So I just started going down the road of designing them as insects. So now they look like insects.

If "District 9" is a hit with critics and at the box office, do you think that help will get the "Halo" movie greenlighted for good this time?

Jackson: I’ll certainly tell you what I know about "Halo." When we were involved with it, it was being produced by Fox and Universal. As far as I’m aware, the film rights have expired and they’re back with Microsoft again. And we had a pretty miserable time when the film fell over, because, as I explained, it’s a heavy moment when a film drops dead on your doorstep.

But I also know Microsoft felt the same way well, and they car e a lot about "Halo." I’ve got a huge amount of respect for Bungie [Studios] and Microsoft and the way they’ve developed that world. I feel a little bit like they’ve been bitten by the experience of trying to deal with the Hollywood system and get films made. They’re looking at what t do with "Halo," they’re looking at the strategy of games, of how a film might fit into that. So at the moment, we’re certainly not involved in any way with any "Halo" movie. And Microsoft are very much figuring out what to do next and what they’d like to do with the property.

Neill Blomkamp, Peter Jackson and Sharlto Copley at Comic-Con International 2009

If you had another chance to do the "Halo" movie, would you do it?

Jackson: I’m excited about "Halo" now as I was then. It’s a terrific game and a terrific universe. So yeah.

Neill, would you still be interested in directing the "Halo" movie if it’s greenlighted?

Blomkamp: It’s like Pete was saying: You put that much effort into something and it collapses, there’s a little bit of that weird thing that happens, I suppose. And going through the process of "District 9," I feel like now I want to develop some of my own ideas. The universe is now, as it was then, was creatively calling me to it that on a creative level, I would love to do it. It’s just a case of the politics working itself out and making sure we don’t repeat what happened. It’s a complex, emotional thing to go through something like that. We got "District 9" out of it.

Is it like a bad breakup and you don’t go out with the girl again?

Blomkamp: No. [He laughs.]

Mr. Jackson, what’s it like to produce a movie and not direct it? And what do you like most about being a producer and director?

Jackson: That’s a very interesting question, actually. I think the answer to that depends very much on the project and who you’re working with. I don’t think there’s a stock answer. My experience on "District 9" was really terrific, because I felt that my job, my role in a way that I was playing, was helping Neill get his film made. I mean, he’s the author of the movie. There’s no point in me making Neill do my movie by proxy. I might as well do it myself. That wasn’t the intent here. I really believe that Neill is a terrifically exciting filmmaker that is going to make a lot of cool films in the future. I saw my role as one of getting to facilitate getting that first film made. Now that Neill’s got his first film made, if it does well, he doesn’t need me anymore. I’ve done my bit.

Blomkamp: I’ll always need you, Pete!

Jackson: So really, what I tried to do was keep throwing ideas at Neill. Some of them were creative, some were based on experience, telling him what to expect, what he might find — just anything I could think of that would be helpful to him. Whenever I was giving him ideas or suggestions or thoughts, I always let him have the final decision. The movie is very different from what I’d have made. If I’d used that same premise, I wouldn’t have made this film. This movie is definitely authored by Neill, but I’m incredibly proud to have my name on it. It’s a terrific movie. I’m really happy with the role that I played.

Sharlto Copley in "District 9"

Neill, when you have more money to do a movie, is it tempting to have more in special effects?

Blomkamp: Well, I haven’t had that much money yet, so I don’t know.

You guys keep saying it’s a low-budget film. It looks high-budget to me.

Copley: I’ve obviously known him and produced for him and worked with him for a long time, and Neill comes from a three-animation world; he comes from design. What you can see in his animation work as an effects artist is a desperate feeling of wanting to tell a story and wanting to move people. Whereas I think a lot of directors working in visual effects today, they come from that world and they see the toys and they get excited about the toys. "Look at the rendering!" Neill’s been rendering since he was 12 years old. [He says to Blomkamp] that’s the feeling I always got with you. As soon as you got into live action, it was like, "Thank God! I don’t have to sit in front of a computer."

Blomkamp: I know what you’re saying. With $150 million [as a movie budget], what would happen?

Jackson: Well, you wouldn’t have the freedom that you had. With that sort of money, you get this terrible anxiety and you have a sense of responsibility and playing it safe. Once you deal with big budgets like that, you have an obligation to earn a lot more money back at the box office. Therefore, the movie tends to get a little bland and you’re playing to demographics and you want to get a wide audience.

The thing with "District 9" was it was a $30 million movie, which was low enough to give Neill a huge amount of freedom. He didn’t have to worry about appealing to a particular kind of demographic. It was made for you guys; it was made for fans of the genre. It was even made to outside of the fandom genre, really. And if it does, that’s terrific and great. And if it does, it’s because the film has heart and emotion. That’s a reason why it might appeal outside. It was a great ability to just go crazy with a low-enough budget to allow them to get away with doing it.

Copley: We had so much freedom and having Peter’s support and to play things like, from an acting point of view, as a South African, there was that issue. What did they say? "Oh the accent must be toned down."

Blomkamp: [He says jokingly] Well, there was a request for Tom Cruise to re-dub your voice.

Copley: So just to be able to play it for what it really was and say, "Let’s take a chance." And no, it’s not necessarily that … the accents need to be American for the Americans to understand. It’s just crazy to think too small like that. That was a real relief for me.