Neill Blomkamp ist einfach überall. Ich war seinerzeit von District 9 durchaus angetan, vielleicht gehöre ich sogar zu den wenigen Menschen, die auch Elysium für absolut sehenswert hielten. Ich gehe stark davon aus dass mir auch Blomkampfs Alien 5 gefallen wird, der irgendwann in nicht allzu ferner Zukunft in den Kinos laufen wird. Solange bekommen wir jetzt erst einmal Chappie zu sehen, seine Variante von Nummer 5 lebt, wenn ihr euch noch an Johnny 5 erinnern könnt. comingsoon.net hatte die Chance sich mit Blomkamp hinzusetzen und über Chappie zu sprechen. Hier sind einige lesenswerte Eindrücke aus dem Interview.
Blomkamp über die Entstehung von Chappie.
It was around 2002 or 2003. I was trying to get out of doing visual effects and move into music videos and commercials, so I was trying to direct basically and just show that I had a collection of work so I could get representation as a commercial director. I shot that piece, which in retrospect is kind of a weird piece, because it's not a Nike commercial. I would have done better trying to get into commercials if I did a fake Gatorade commercial, but I did something that I loved and that's always a good thing. I just wanted to see a police robot in Africa. But that didn't lead to this film though. What led to this film was that while I was writing Elysium, I was writing those droids in that movie, and I was listening to Die Antwoord separately. One night, I just came up with the idea of that band raising one of these robots. That is really the genesis of this film, and then I was like "Well, I've already done a police robot thing way back." I'll just tie the name to that and a couple of other things. So I used Tetrovaal as the company.
Hier ist übrigens das kleine Testvideo namens Tetra Vaal, das von Blomkamp gedreht wurde und von dem er hier spricht.
Über die Entwicklung der Filmtechnik von seinem damaligen Testvideo bis zum heutigen Chappie Kinofilm sagt Blomkamp, dass sich nicht allzu viel verändert habe.
[...] the way that technology has changed in those ten or twelve years is there's no fundamental change. There's no paradigm shift. It's just quicker and the software is more complex, but the ideas are all the same. Like a shift is like when you go from models and miniatures and prosthetics to Terminator 2. That's a shift. The technology in essence is exactly the same between '03 and now. It's just like when you do particle simulation, you can do way more particles with way better processes. The way you calculate light and radiosity and bouncing light and refraction. You have better computational ability, but it's all the same sh*t. It's not totally different.
Darüber, dass Chappie so wirkt, als sei er nicht am Computer entstanden. Letztendlich beinhaltet dieser Film nun mehr Computereffekte als der Blockbuster Elysium mit seiner Weltraumstation.
There's actually more CG in this film, though, because there's almost a thousand shots of Chappie and he's never anything other than computer-generated, so he's always CG which means the lead character is digital which means that's a lot of VFX. But it's done in a way that it looks so real that I think your brain... you know that it isn't impossible, like a space station. So you think of it differently. You think of it, "Oh, this is the leading character.
Über die ungewöhnliche Entscheidung, Hugh Jackman zum Bösewicht des Films zu machen.
It was one of those... I can't speak about why he took the role, but I always loved the character and I always thought he was such a weird villain, and I loved the idea of him being Australian and that Hugh could just keep his accent. It was kind of honest. He didn't have to manipulate or change himself to fit the character, so I always wanted him. The second that name came up I was like, "God I hope he does this." I love working with that guy. I would make a thousand films with him if I could. Such a good dude to have on set.
Über den ungewöhnlichen Score, den er sich von Hans Zimmer gewünscht hat und wie begeistert Blomkamp vom Endprodukt ist.
Cause it's different for him. That's what I loved about it. First of all, I can't believe how awesome that guy is to work with. I love working with him. I pretty much only said two things to him. I asked, "Can it be non-orchestrated?" so it forces you to make everything digitally or through synthesizers, which are organic to some degree and not digital. And "Can you include synth?" so it's non-orchestrated and secondly, it has this synthy '70s/'80s kind of sound. And he just went nuts with those two concepts and came up with what the film is, which is my favorite score.
Über einen Vergleich mit dem kürzlich erst in den Kinos gewesenen RoboCop, dem Remake des Paul Verhoeven Sci-Fi-Klassikers.
It became less noticeable to me, but I do remember when that film was coming out that I was in the process of basically prepping Chappie, and I was like, "Sh*t, this is unfortunate timing." It bothered me back then, but now, it doesn't bother me at all. Now, time has gone by and that film is gone to me. Because when you watch it, it's so different from RoboCop, but it's these elements that are similar that are inescapable.
Wer Lust hat das komplette Interview zu lesen kann dies hier tun. Chappie startet in dieser Woche in den deutschen Kinos und ich hab mein Ticket schon im Portemonaie bereit liegen. Habt ihr vor den Film zu sehen, was erwartet ihr euch von dem neuesten Sci-Fi von Neill Blomkamp. Die Kommentare stehen euren Meinungen offen.
