The elaborate online marketing campaign for upcoming Johannesburg-set science fiction flick
District 9 has unveiled a new feature today, with us lucky punters being offered the opportunity to blast a few aliens in a video game based on the movie. Woo and indeed hoo.
With the film’s scenario revolving round alien arrivals on Earth being interned into a slum area by the autocratic corporation Multi-National United, the game - available at
http://www.district9game.com - offers vague link to this set-up, with the player cast as either sneaking alien or patrolling guard. It’s not exactly
Gears of War, but it is free and you certainly can’t say that about very much these days (unless you’re a British parliamentarian).
Being produced under the aegis of Peter Jackson,
District 9 is directed by visual effects man Neill Blomkamp, and has been developed from his earlier short
Alive in Joburg. The current trailer keeps its cards fairly close to its chest, not giving too much away in terms of where the basic scenario is headed, although the inference is that the oppositional extraterrestrials/humans set-up will be utilised for an
Alien Nation-esque immigration allegory.
It is nice to see the effort that has been lavished on the
District 9 website, with the film-makers clearly aiming to develop a minutely detailed
Cloverfield-style multimedia story-verse in order to build a bit of pre-release buzz. The movie’s narrative tension between humans and aliens seems pointed when taking the South Africa setting into account, with the spin being that it us Earth-dwellers who are the prime aggressors – although whether Blomkamp’s aliens bite back should be clearer once the new trailer is released next week. But until then, I guess we’re just expected to content ourselves with some 16-bit-style alien-glooping action.
Sources: Coming Soon
December 30, 2008, 06:06:32 PM
