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Director Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 is a great example of  when Sci-Fi and Action are mixed together successfully. In District 9, the story goes that Wikus Van De Mere (Sharlto Copley) runs for his life from the M.N,.U (Multi-National United) and Nigerian gangs after an accident causes him to slowly transform into the alien species called the Prawn. His transformation is the only kind of transformation to ever happen before and because the weapons the Prawns have only work with Prawn DNA, both M.N.U and the Nigerian gang are after him. The weapons themselves are really freaking cool and when push comes to shove, Wikus and his new alien friend, Christopher, use them and completely destroy the humans that are trying to capture him. WETA, the prop making company that worked on the film, is selling full scale prop replicas of two alien weapons from District 9, on their website, available for pre-order at $500 each. Something a completely dedicated District 9 or Sci-Fi fan would really enjoy picking up. The two guns are the Gas Projector and the Arc Generator, two of the many guns in District 9.
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This is it! The biggest awards show in Hollywood has released their nominations today and as expected, Avatar has been well represented in the categories. Perhaps the biggest news is that Avatar will NOT be able to steal the crown from Jackson’s masterpiece Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, the epic Ben-Hur and Cameron’s own Titanic. Each film won 11 Oscars and hold the joint record of most Oscars awarded. Avatar and The Hurt Locker (directed by Cameron’s ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow) both lead the pack this year with 9 nominations each.
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District 9 fans have been waiting a while for something like this to be made, and wait no more: District 9 models are here (not the hot wife)! It’s been a while, but after going through home-made alien hands, miniature Exo-Suits, and an ARC gun, we’ve finally got ourselves a detailed statue of a prawn head.

Joe Dunaway is the artist behind this detailed work. He’s made over 230 albums for multiple movies and has now taken a whack at District 9.
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Facebook isn’t a stranger to film and television promotions. They’re probably one of the biggest promotional tools on the internet next to YouTube, and having ads on their website (along with selling the site) is what made them the multi-billionaires that they are today. Facebook has added features in the last few years that have seriously helped films promote, including giving movies their own Facebook pages for the fans of join. Of course, District 9 is one of those films, having both a page for the film itself and a page for Sharlto Copley, the main actor in the film. District 9 has gained 200,000 fans while Sharlto Copley’s page has 5,000 fans. Those 5,000 fans were notified in their Facebook Live Feeds that on the Copley page, a new photo album was created giving us a never before look at the world behind District 9. This new 10 page photo album gives us, the fans of the movie, a wonderful look at the world behind District 9 we speculated and debated over for so long. Not really giving us a decent look at the world itself but the world of the people who created it, which is just extremely neat.

Check out some of the pictures after the jump.
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Indy Mogul is a great site for news, reviews, and anything about DIY filmmaking. On the site and its YouTube channel, they show you how to make cheap special effects that look great (called Backyard FX). In one of their latest videos, they show you how to make an alien hand just like Christopher’s in District 9. Check out the instructional video and the test film they made after the jump.
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Last week we asked you to vote in our forum for the best in various categories of viral marketing for the year. Now we have the results of the each of those polls, so lets tell you who won, as well as what we think about the results. Lets get to it. Here are your 1st Annual MovieViral Awards winners!

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Yep, it’s definitely the awards season. With 2009 behind us, it’s time to look back at the best films of the year, and yet another organisation, the Writers Guild of America, have announced their nominees for the best screenplays of the last year.


Up for the award of the best original screenplay, the visual spectacle and runaway steam train Avatar has been nominated as well as some of our favourite indie films, The Hurt Locker and (500) Days Of Summer, as well as Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man and the most successful R rated comedy ever The Hangover.


Perhaps the greatest Sci-Fi comeback film, Star Trek, has been nominated for the best Adapted Screenplay award as well as the powerful drama Precious, culinary delightful (So I hear) Julie and Julia, the western Crazy Heart, and the recent George Clooney critically acclaimed hit Up In The Air.


A great list of films, no doubt about it, but what happened to one of MovieViral’s greatest films of the year? That’s right, it’s humans only as District 9 has been excluded from the nominees. It’s a real surprise since District 9 has been recognised by most of the award ceremonies as one of the best films of the year. In fact you can vote for the film yourself in our very own Viral awards poll. Still, it’s been a good year for Sci-Fi films, as well as those who have ran Viral campaigns.


Again good luck to those nominated, and let’s hope that District 9 gets the nominations it deserves in the greatest awards ceremony of them all, The Oscars. The nominations will be announced on the 2nd of February.


So, has this list surprised you by the omission of District 9? Was it’s script not good enough, or was the competition simply better? Leave your comments below and don’t forget to vote for your favourite virals of the year.

Well no, of course not. However, rather than direct the sequel we were all expecting, it seems Neill Blomkamp has an altogether different idea. This week the LA Times has been running a series of installments from an interview they held with Blomkamp about his first movie, District 9, his next movie, and other projects in the future. District 9 has been picking up nominations from all over and is one of the hottest things in cinema, so naturally, the LA Times wanted to catch up with him and find out what was next.


So what is next for Neill? His next project is also going to be a Sci-fi film, set 150 years in the future and played out across 2 cities. Details are of course thin, but whatever it is, I’m sure we all be looking forward too it. And what about District 9? Well it seems that Blomkamp has thought about the sequel, but thinks the journey the characters took up to the point where we are introduced to them is more interesting than than the events that could take place after D-9 ends.


Neill had this to say about the next film in the D-9 saga:

 A sequel might be interesting. I know what I’m doing next so it wouldn’t be right away. But the concept of aliens in Johannesburg is such an appealing idea to me and the issues of race and how they meet. All of the things that I had going on with it. I wouldn’t mind messing around with it again. I’m open to it if the story works and there’s a reason to do it. And [Copley's character] Wikus is so funny to me, I’m very interested in a sort of passive racist like that. If you go forward [with his story beyond "District 9"] it’s more of a traditional film but if you go backward I’d be intrigued in that. I’m not so interested in aliens coming back and blowing things up but [a prequel] might be interesting.

Sounds like a good idea when you read it on paper, but it will be interesting to see how it turns out. He’s also asked about a TV show: (“A television show I wouldn’t really want to do. That would be…well, I just don’t want to do that”) as well as a video game (“The idea of ‘District 9′ as a video game stresses me out a little bit because games based on movies rarely work. And movies based on games don’t work — I don’t know what’s up with”).


So it seems that the fame and recognition that Neill has gained since the release of his directorial debut hasn’t affected his grip on reality. It’s very apparent that he has a love for story-telling and wants to focus on film-making over money-making. I knew there was a reason we all liked him! The 3 part LA Times article can be found here, here and here.


So, the concepts are out there from the man himself, but what do you think? Do you want to see the thinking man’s prequel or do you want the all out action prawn revenge sequel? Leave your comments below.

The Producers Guild Awards, an often-watched list for Oscar predictions, has published their nominations for best produced films, and films we have been following, District 9 and Avatar amongst others, have made the grade. For years the Producers Guild Awards have been a great precursor to the Oscars, with several films going onto win the golden statue after picking up a PGA award. Taking place on the 24th of January, those in the know will be watching the winners with great interest. The Oscar nominations will be announced a week later on the 2nd of February.


Avatar, District 9 and Star Trek have been announced as contenders for the motion picture of the year as well MovieViral favourites The Hurt Locker and Inglorious Basterds. Also worth a mention is the film 9 which ran a viral prior to its release and is nominated for the animated film of the year award.


It looks to be a great year for Sci-fi films scooping awards, and we wish all of them good luck, especially Neill Blomkamp for his directorial debut with DIstrict 9. What do you think? All deserving entries? Leave your comments below.


Here is the full list of nominees.

Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures:

AVATAR
Producers: James Cameron, Jon Landau

DISTRICT 9
Producers: Carolynne Cunningham, Peter Jackson

AN EDUCATION
Producers: Finola Dwyer, Amanda Posey

THE HURT LOCKER
Producer(s): Awaiting final credit determination.

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
Producer: Lawrence Bender

INVICTUS
Producers: Clint Eastwood, Rob Lorenz, Lori McCreary , Mace Neufeld

PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE
Producers: Lee Daniels, Gary Magness, Sarah Siegel-Magness

STAR TREK
Producers: J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof

UP
Producer: Jonas Rivera

UP IN THE AIR
Producer(s): Awaiting final credit determination.


PGA Producer of the Year Award in Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:

9
Producer(s): Awaiting final credit determination.

CORALINE
Producer(s): Awaiting final credit determination.

FANTASTIC MR. FOX
Producer(s): Awaiting final credit determination.

THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG
Producer: Peter Del Vecho

UP
Producer: Jonas Rivera


PGA Producer of the Year Award in Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures:

BURMA VJ
Producer: Lise Lense-Moller

The COVE
Producers: Paula DuPre Pesmen, Fisher Stevens

SERGIO
Producer(s): Awaiting final credit determination.

SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION
Producer(s): Awaiting final credit determination.

Well, it was inevitable. First we had the District 9 soundboard, then came the random insertions of “fook” into everyday conversations. Now that the DVD is out, we are finally able to cut all that other junk out of the movie and see only what we want to see. Here’s a specially edited version of District 9 for your viewing pleasure, thanks to a member on Collegehumor.