In the wake of Guillermo Del Toro’s departure from “The Hobbit,” a number of names — including David Yates, Sam Raimi and Alfonso Cuaron — have been rumored or spitballed as candidates to sit in the now vacant director’s chair. The last name to have surfaced was Neill Blomkamp and it seemed logical enough that he would at least be considered. A protege of Peter Jackson, he directed the sleeper sci-fi hit “District 9” (which Jackson produced) and before that was in line to direct the video-game adaptation “Halo” (also set to be produced by Jackson) before it fell apart.
However, it appears any talk of Blomkamp directing “The Hobbit” has been, well, just talk. The Vulture reveals that a source at his agency, William Morris Endeavor, says that “not only is Blomkamp not doing the movie, no one from MGM/United Artists or Warner Bros. has even contacted them about his directing the film.” We’re sure the fanboys are going to have a field day with that one.
So, if Blomkamp isn’t traveling to Middle Earth, what is he working on next? Well, the director is forging ahead with his sci-fi/horror project “Elysium,” an original project he wrote himself. The film was first announced very early in the New Year, and Blomkamp has previously described the film as “sci-fi, horror, something around there” and was “pretty sure it’s set on another planet” and “way in the future.” He now adds that the film will explore “many sociopolitical ideas that interest [him]” with the ideas “wrapped up inside something that is like a Hollywood action film.”
But even though Blomkamp was never officially offered “The Hobbit” we seriously doubt he would’ve been very interested. As he said back in January, “I’ve been offered films – a lot of films, in fact – with seriously high budgets, and I’ve turned them all down. The reason is exactly what you said earlier: Once the budgets get bigger, you can’t do what you want as a director, unless you’re Peter Jackson or James Cameron. And even then, the pressure is still on the filmmaker. Even if the studio isn’t clamping down on you, all the pressure is on the director. And if you screw that up, the jeopardy situation is even worse.” In short, the pressure, stress and expectations of a studio’s blockbuster doesn’t interest him, and thus we’re not surprised he’s more keen to pursue his own work and ideas.
There’s no word on when “Elysium” might go in front of cameras, or “The Hobbit” for that matter, but this new project has been rumored to be shooting in the fall. The latter film is still without a director and probably will be until MGM sorts out their money woes (which is probably why they didn’t approach Blomkamp or really, any other director on that list). We’re sure conversations are happening but we don’t see anybody signing on until finances are stabilized; Del Toro already lost two years to the project and we’re sure any other potential director wants to make sure everything is in place before committing themselves to the film.