So what was director Neill Blomkamp up to with those “Alien” designs and concept art that he posted a week back? As some were speculating — given the design had a young Sigourney Weaver and the likely long dead Michael Biehn as Corporal Dwayne Hicks — maybe he was planning a video game within that same time period? Who knows. He hasn’t admitted what that secret, now evidently abandoned project was. We’ll assume details will come to light some day. In the meantime, Blomkamp’s got his sci-fi “Chappie” on the way.
Some have noted that the first trailer didn’t show a lot of “comedy” and was actually quite serious with a melodramatic score. Well, that’s marketing for you, and we’ll assume the movie has more than one flavor ala “District 9” (and is hopefully a lot less like the more humorless “Elysium”). Backing up a little bit: in case you’re unaware, the film is about an advanced artificial intelligence robot (voiced by Sharlto Copley) who is kidnapped by two criminals (South African rap-rave group Die Antwoord) shortly after his “birth,” and becomes the adopted son figure in their strange and dysfunctional family. Dev Patel plays Chappie’s creator, Hugh Jackman plays some kind of tech-phobic law enforcer hell bent on stopping the world’s first robot with the ability to think and feel for himself. “Chappie” also stars Jose Pablo Cantillo and that "Alien" star Sigourney Weaver.
So anyhow, trailer number two for “Chappie” below. The movie opens on March 6th.