Who is Neill Blomkamp? Find Net Worth, Quote, Awards, Fact, Wiki

Neill Blomkamp Wiki: Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family

Neill Blomkamp (born 17 September 1979) is a South African-Canadian film and advertisement director, writer, producer and animator. Blomkamp employs a documentary-style, hand-held, cinéma vérité technique, blending naturalistic and photo-realistic computer-generated effects. He is best known as the co-writer and director of critically acclaimed District 9 and the science fiction film Elysium and his frequent collaborations with actor Sharlto Copley. He is based out of Vancouver, British Columbia.Time named Blomkamp as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2009. Forbes magazine named him as the 21st most powerful celebrity from Africa. 

Full Name Neill Blomkamp
Net Worth $17 Million
Date Of Birth September 17, 1979
Place Of Birth Johannesburg, South Africa
Height 5′ 11″ (1.8 m)
Profession Screenwriter, Film producer, Film director, Animator
Education Vancouver Film School
Spouse Terri Tatchell
Children Cassidy Blomkamp
Nicknames Neill Blomkamp, Blomkamp, Neill
IMDB http://imdb.com/name/nm0088955
Awards Ray Bradbury Award
Nominations Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay, Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay – Motion Picture, BAFTA Award for Best Direction, BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, Empire Award for Best Director, Critics’ Choice Movie Award for B…
Movies Chappie, Elysium, District 9, Crossing the Line, Tempbot, Alive in Joburg, Tetra Vaal, Halo, Yellow, Chappie 2, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, Clint Eastwood, David Lynch, Ridley Scott, Tim Bu…
Star Sign Virgo
Trademark
1 Often casts Sharlto Copley (District 9 (2009), _Elysium (2013)_ and Chappie (2015))
2 Social commentary using Science Fiction
3 Blending naturalistic and photo-realistic computer-generated effects
4 Cinéma vérité technique
Quote
1 [on Johannesburg] It has this thermonuclear-weapons feel, like it’s going to go off at any point.[2013]
2 [on Los Angeles] Joburg Light [2013]
3 [on shooting Chappie (2015) in Jo’Burg] Johannesburg can be both township and completely urban and almost American. You can choose the Johannesburg you want, so I made “Chappie”(2014) exclusively urban. Because Die Antwoord is native to South Africa, I felt the film had to be set there. However, I started to feel that I was treading too close to District 9 (2009) so I moved the second draft to America. But moving the story to America felt like it created a fish-out-of-water feeling for Die Antwoord, so I set it back in Joburg, but with South Africa as the backdrop but not the star.[2015]
4 [on using motion capture in Chappie (2015)] Think of the animation like really, really expensive makeup. The actor drives the performance: they are completely and utterly captured in the process of rotomation.[2015]
5 [on _Elysium_] I feel like I fucked it up, I feel like ultimately the story is not the right story. I still think the satirical idea of a ring filled with rich people hovering above the impoverished Earth is an awesome idea. I love it so much, I almost want to go back and do it correctly. But I just think the script wasn’t… I just didn’t make a good enough film is ultimately what it is. I feel like I executed all of the stuff that could be executed, like costume and set design and special effects very well. But ultimately it was all resting on a somewhat not totally formed skeletal system, so the script just wasn’t there.
6 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.
7 There is something fundamentally fascinating about the mechanics, I guess, of the human body and where consciousness and mind exist, and what you can do with the mechanics of the body while keeping those intact, and where those two cross over.
8 There’s no question that how Johannesburg operates is what made me interested in the idea of wealth discrepancy. Elysium (2013) 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.
9 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.
10 The concept of even having fans is still kind of weird to me. I really just feel like a filmmaker that is only just finding my foot in and is beginning to participate in Hollywood and making films. So the idea of any kind of fandom or people that are waiting for something that I may release is very distant in my mind.
11 On one hand, I think people are destined for something incredible if we don’t wipe ourselves out, but I think we’re going to wipe 90 percent of ourselves out.
12 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.
13 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 Verhoeven stuff. I guess when I was younger, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) had an influence.
14 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.
15 If there isn’t a deep core reason for a film existing, what is the point? For me to be known as a filmmaker that makes films that have a point, I’m stoked.
16 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.
17 If you look at the most meaningful science fiction, it didn’t come from watching other films. We seem to be in a place now where filmmakers make films based on other films because that’s where the stimuli and influence comes from.
18 My favourite stuff is visual, and I always want to work with visual artwork. I think it depends on the person, but for me, photographs of an image of something interesting or inspiring is worth a lot more than words to me. I think every concept I’ve come up with and turned into films or that will be hopefully become a film comes from images first.
19 I think there’s a lot of crazy stuff on the Internet. You read stuff that is wild speculation, and there’s an element of it that makes me not trust it because there’s this undercurrent of insanity to it sometimes.
20 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.
21 I’m not particularly interested in working with movie stars. It depends on where you come from, I suppose. Why are you making films? The reason I want make films is because they convey ideas. I think some directors make films because they want to hang out with movie stars and be part of Hollywood. They want to be a star themselves.
22 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.
23 I want to make a film that is commercially successful because that means that the larger cinema-going audience around the world like the movie, which is my goal. That’s my job, to make films that people respond to.
24 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.
25 I think growing up in South Africa, and then moving to Canada, I’m just genuinely interested in the difference between the First World and the Third World, immigration, and how the new, globalized world is beginning to operate. All of those things run through my mind a lot.
26 I think filmmakers in general are, as the tools become more and more advanced, you’re able to tell stories in a way that I think is more realistic. The technology just wasn’t there up until pretty recently, and it takes a bit of time for the normal artistic way of approaching something to become a mainstream thing.
27 I think that Elysium (2013) 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.
28 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 (1979) films, I watch 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), I watch Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977), the first ones, because those actually had a huge effect on me as well, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) especially.
29 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.
30 I think the world of District 9 (2009) has a lot of race and oppression-based ideas that I would still like to explore in that world.
31 I never really think of something in terms of what not to do. It’s always what’s appealing or what’s cool.
32 District 9 (2009) was a singular anti-Apartheid metaphor, and Elysium (2013) 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.
33 If you don’t have something that glues the audience to the screen, you’re in trouble.
34 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.
35 I think that people who make films and think they’re changing the world are sorely mistaken. If that really is your goal, there are far better ways to do it. I’m making politically observant films for audiences.
36 I’m a massive hater of 3D. I don’t like it at all. For me, you go to a movie theatre and you want to be taken to a place and transported to a place and be in that environment, and I know 3D is meant to do that, but the effect for me is the reverse. I feel like I’m looking though muddy water, and I can’t really see the image.
37 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.
38 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.
39 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 (2001) and I could also totally do horror.
40 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.
41 I think that in the realm of commercial, popcorn cinema, the amount of message or smuggling of ideas you can get in there is quite limited. Like, if you think you’re going to make a difference or change anything, you’re on pretty dangerous thin ice.
42 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.
43 District 9 (2009), Elysium (2013) and Chappie (2015) were all born out of some visual concept first. “Chappie”(2014) 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.
44 When any young director gets hired by a studio to do a $125 million film based on a preexisting piece of intellectual property, they’re climbing into the meat grinder. And what you’re coming out with on the other side is a generic, heavily studio-controlled pile of garbage that ends up on the side of Burger King wrappers.
45 I like where we’re going with technology and global integration, but the fact that corporations and dollars rule everything in our lives, I don’t like it. This isn’t the Hollywood I wanted to be part of.
46 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.
47 If something is as smart as you, do you treat it differently if it isn’t a human?
48 I actually think Johannesburg represents the future. My version of what I think the world is going to become looks like Johannesburg.
49 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.
50 In a lot of the really impoverished areas of Johannesburg you see these packets of cheesy puffs which are like 6 feet long and the width of a basketball, and they’re transparent and they have like 10,000 cheesy puffs in them, and you can buy that for like 50 cents. It’s kind of a weird treat that you’d see people having in the townships.
51 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.
52 If I wanted to make something that actually made a difference roughly in this industry, I would make a documentary. That would be the closest I could come to actually try and make a difference.
53 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.
54 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.
55 There has to be the popcorn genre element, or I don’t engage the same way. I like action and vehicle design and guns and computer graphics as much as I like allegory. It’s a constant balancing game. I want audiences to be on this rollercoaster that fits the Hollywood mould, but I also want them to absorb my observations.
56 Chappie (2015) would be like RoboCop (1987) but hilarious. If you mixed “Robocop” with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and it was… funny, that’s what it is.
57 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.
58 Johannesburg is weird, because half of it is like Los Angeles. It feels like just wealthy parts of L.A. But half of it is severe slummy, something like Rio De Janiero or something. So it’s kind of weird, because it’s both happening at the same time.
Fact
1 Was considered to direct The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012).
2 Was set to direct a highly-anticipated movie adaptation of the popular video game Halo (2001) after a screenplay by Alex Garland. Peter Jackson would supervise as producer. There were initial difficulties because Microsoft, the owner of the game franchise, had a long list of demands, including 10 million dollar for the screenplay, 15% of the box office earnings, a budget of at least 75 million dollar and a lot of creative control. Most studies turned the project down, until Fox and Universal agreed to co-produce it. Ten million dollar were already spent on development, and Blomkamp even moved to New Zealand to oversee pre-production at WETA studios, when Universal tried to force budget cuts. Since neither Jackson or Microsoft were willing to agree on this, the project was shelved. Jackson then asked Blomkamp if he had any other ideas, and Blomkamp suggested an expanded remake of his short film Alive in Joburg (2005), which ultimately became his much praised feature film debut District 9 (2009).
3 He is friends with Michael Bay.
4 (May 10, 2010) Merited a position in Time magazine’s – The 100 Most Influential People in the World (“Artists” category) – with an homage contributed by Ridley Scott.
5 Immigrated to Canada at 18 years old.
6 Graduated from Vancouver Film School’s 3D Animation and Visual Effects program in 1998.

Director

Title Year Status Character
Untitled Neill Blomkamp/Alien Project announced
The Escape 2016/VI Short
Chappie 2015
Elysium 2013/I
District 9 2009
Crossing the Line 2008/I Short additional director
Tempbot 2006 Short
Yellow 2006/IV Short
Alive in Joburg 2005 Short
Tetra Vaal 2004 Short

Writer

Title Year Status Character
Untitled Neill Blomkamp/Alien Project announced
The Escape 2016/VI Short written by
Chappie 2015 written by
Elysium 2013/I written by
Wikus and Charlize 2010 Short character – uncredited
District 9 2009 written by
Yellow 2006/IV Short written by
Alive in Joburg 2005 Short uncredited
Tetra Vaal 2004 Short

Visual Effects

Title Year Status Character
Yellow 2006/IV Short lead visual effects artist
Alive in Joburg 2005 Short visual effects
Smallville 2001 TV Series 3D animator
3000 Miles to Graceland 2001 lead 3D animator
Dark Angel 2000 TV Series lead animator – 1 episode
Aftershock: Earthquake in New York 1999 TV Mini-Series 3D animator – uncredited
Mercy Point 1998 TV Series 3D animator
First Wave 1998 TV Series 3D animator
Stargate SG-1 1997 TV Series 3D animator

Producer

Title Year Status Character
Untitled Neill Blomkamp/Alien Project producer announced
Chappie 2015 producer
Elysium 2013/I producer
Tetra Vaal 2004 Short producer

Actor

Title Year Status Character
District 9 2009 Man with Wikus’ Coordinates (uncredited)

Editor

Title Year Status Character
Tetra Vaal 2004 Short

Thanks

Title Year Status Character
Hardcore Henry 2015 special thanks
Somnolence 2011/II Short special thanks
Terminus 2007/I Short thanks
BV-01 2004 Short special thanks

Self

Title Year Status Character
Bringing Chappie to Life: The Visual Effects of ‘Chappie’ 2015 Video short Himself
Chappie: Crime Spree – Scene Deconstructions 2015 Video documentary short Himself
Chappie: From Tetra Vaal to Chappie 2015 Video short Himself
Chappie: Jozi – Real City and a Sci-Fi Setting 2015 Video short Himself
Días de cine 2009-2015 TV Series Himself
Janela Indiscreta 2013-2015 TV Series Himself
Elysium: Bugatti 2154 2013 Video documentary short Himself
Elysium: Engineering Utopia – Creating a Society in the Sky 2013 Video documentary short Himself
Exoskeletons, Explosions, and the Action Choreography of Elysium 2013 Video documentary short Himself
In Support of Story: The Visual Effects of Elysium 2013 Video documentary short Himself
The Art of the Elysium Miniatures 2013 Video documentary short Himself
The Hero, the Psychopath and the Characters of Elysium 2013 Video documentary short Himself
The Journey to Elysium: A Filmaker’s Log: Capturing Elysium 2013 Video documentary short Himself
The Journey to Elysium: A Filmaker’s Log: Enhancing Elysium 2013 Video documentary short Himself
The Journey to Elysium: A Filmaker’s Log: Envisioning Elysium 2013 Video documentary short Himself
The Technology of 2154 2013 Video documentary short Himself
Vivir de cine 2013 TV Series Himself
Made in Hollywood 2013 TV Series Himself
The Hour 2010 TV Series Himself
‘District 9’: Comic-Con Extravaganza 2009 Video short Himself
Alien Generation: The Visual Effects of ‘District 9’ 2009 Video documentary short Himself
Conception and Design: Creating the World of ‘District 9’ 2009 Video short Himself
Innovation: The Acting and Improvisation of ‘District 9’ 2009 Video short Himself
Metamorphosis: The Transformation of Wikus 2009 Video short Himself
The Alien Agenda: A Filmmaker’s Log 2009 Video short Himself
Cinema 3 2009 TV Series Himself
Le grand journal de Canal+ 2009 TV Series documentary Himself
Best Ever Ads 2 2006 TV Movie documentary Himself

Won Awards

Year Award Ceremony Nomination Movie
2010 OFTA Film Award Online Film & Television Association Best First Feature District 9 (2009)
2010 OFTA Film Award Online Film & Television Association Best First Screenplay District 9 (2009)
2010 Bradbury Award Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America District 9 (2009)
2009 Austin Film Critics Award Austin Film Critics Association Best First Film District 9 (2009)
2009 BSFC Award Boston Society of Film Critics Awards Best New Filmmaker District 9 (2009)
2009 CFCA Award Chicago Film Critics Association Awards Most Promising Filmmaker District 9 (2009)
2009 New Generation Award Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards District 9 (2009)
2009 OFCC Award Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Awards Best First Film District 9 (2009)
2009 PFCS Award Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards Breakout Behind the Camera District 9 (2009)
2005 VES Award Visual Effects Society Awards Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial
2001 Monitor International Monitor Awards Film Originated Television Series – Best Visual Effects Dark Angel (2000)

Nominated Awards

Year Award Ceremony Nomination Movie
2014 Jupiter Award Jupiter Award Best International Film Elysium (2013)
2013 Hollywood Movie Award Hollywood Film Awards Elysium (2013)
2011 Kinema Junpo Award Kinema Junpo Awards Best Foreign Language Film District 9 (2009)
2010 Oscar Academy Awards, USA Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay District 9 (2009)
2010 Golden Globe Golden Globes, USA Best Screenplay – Motion Picture District 9 (2009)
2010 David Lean Award for Direction BAFTA Awards Best Director District 9 (2009)
2010 BAFTA Film Award BAFTA Awards Best Screenplay – Adapted District 9 (2009)
2010 Saturn Award Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA Best Director District 9 (2009)
2010 Saturn Award Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA Best Writing District 9 (2009)
2010 Critics Choice Award Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards Best Screenplay, Adapted District 9 (2009)
2010 Empire Award Empire Awards, UK Best Director District 9 (2009)
2010 Gold Derby Award Gold Derby Awards Director District 9 (2009)
2010 Gold Derby Award Gold Derby Awards Adapted Screenplay District 9 (2009)
2010 Hugo Hugo Awards Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form District 9 (2009)
2010 ICS Award International Cinephile Society Awards Best Director District 9 (2009)
2010 ICS Award International Cinephile Society Awards Best Adapted Screenplay District 9 (2009)
2010 OFTA Film Award Online Film & Television Association Best Director District 9 (2009)
2010 OFTA Film Award Online Film & Television Association Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium District 9 (2009)
2010 OFCS Award Online Film Critics Society Awards Best Director District 9 (2009)
2010 OFCS Award Online Film Critics Society Awards Best Adapted Screenplay District 9 (2009)
2010 Scream Award Scream Awards Best Director District 9 (2009)
2010 Scream Award Scream Awards Best Scream-Play District 9 (2009)
2010 SFX Award SFX Awards, UK Best Director District 9 (2009)
2010 TFCA Award Toronto Film Critics Association Awards Best First Feature District 9 (2009)
2010 USC Scripter Award USC Scripter Award District 9 (2009)
2009 ACCA Awards Circuit Community Awards Best Director District 9 (2009)
2009 Golden Schmoes Golden Schmoes Awards Best Director of the Year District 9 (2009)
2009 ICP Award Indiewire Critics’ Poll Best First Feature District 9 (2009)
2009 Satellite Award Satellite Awards Best Director District 9 (2009)
2009 Satellite Award Satellite Awards Best Screenplay, Adapted District 9 (2009)
2001 Primetime Emmy Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series Dark Angel (2000)

2nd Place Awards

Year Award Ceremony Nomination Movie
2010 COFCA Award Central Ohio Film Critics Association Breakthrough Film Artist District 9 (2009)
2009 ACCA Awards Circuit Community Awards Best Adapted Screenplay District 9 (2009)
2009 Golden Schmoes Golden Schmoes Awards Best Screenplay of the Year District 9 (2009)
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