CHAPPIE's Neill Blomkamp Talks APPLESEED Inspiration

From the first imagery released from Neill Blomkamp's Chappie, anime and manga fans were quick to point out how similar that film's robot looked to the mechanical protagonist of the hit anime and manga, Appleseed.  Recently, Blomkamp addressed those similarities in a new interview [via Anime News Network] where he discussed being inspired by Appleseed's Briareos.  "Masamune Shirow, he has one robot called Briareos that has these rabbit ears. I just love that as a design feature, so I put that on the robot in the short... When I made Chappie, I was like, 'Obviously, the robot will be based on that robot, and the fictional company that made that robot will make the fictional robots in the full feature film."

Appleseed is  a cyber punk mecha series which follows law enforcement officers  Deunan Knute and the bio-android, Briareos Hecatonchires.  The two protect the fictional city of Olympus in a post-apocalyptic future.  Chappie is an upcoming film directed by Neill Blomkamp (34) and written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell.  Originally conceived as a short film when Blomkamp was only 23, but was commissioned for a feature length film in 2012 by Columbia Pictures. Sharlto Copley portrays the mechanical protagonist of the film using non-traditional motion capture techniques.  Co-starring are Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver.  In a far-flung future, Chappie is the first robot of the era that's given the ability for individual thought and personality.  Powerful forces view this new robot as a threat and attempt to to destroy Chappie at any cost.