While it may not have found huge commercial success at the box office this weekend, Neil Blomkamp's Chappie has certainly got people talking. The talented director first burst onto the scene back in 2009 with his Oscar nominated smash hit: District 9, but his follow-up movie in Elysium failed to garner as much attention or praise. Looking to bounce back with his latest flick, Neil briefly touched upon the potential for a Chappie sequel, in a recent interview with IGN:
"Well, actually, I wrote it as a trilogy. So, I haven't written the other two, but I wrote treatments for the other two, so I kind of think I know what happens with the next two, but… but I don't know if I want to say what happens. I'm not sure I'm going to make them either, but…Yeah, I think, I mean, I love the movie, like I feel really proud of the movie. I don't know what audiences will say, I don't know if it will be economically feasible to make more, but I think I would like to make more."
With 'Chappie' himself being a robotic protagonist, one of the central themes in the film was the concept of artificial intelligence, and the real-life potential for replicating human conciousness. Blomkamp firmly maintained it's a conversation worth having...
"The question is whether it's possible or not, right? Like, there's nothing within physics that says that time travel is impossible, but it may be impossible because maybe we've found… we just haven't hit equations that prove it's impossible, it may also be possible. I think A.I. is the same thing – maybe it's possible, maybe it's not possible. If it's possible, building in safeguards and everything else, evolution will find a way around that almost instantaneously is my belief."
So far, all three of Blomkamp's movies have heavily centered around science fiction themes. With a new Alien movie up next, Neil was asked whether he enjoyed using a platform like the sci-fi genre to channel his ideas through...
"I mean, yeah, I think that's probably true. I think for some weird reason it's been science fiction. I don't think it needs to be though, like, I love fantasy. I love anything that is not mundane everyday life. So, you know, dramas and s**t… like the only real world thing I think I could direct that I would actually really like to direct is a war film. I'm very interested in war, but drama and stuff is like not, I'm just not interested. So I need a platform where fantastical non-possible things can happen, and that platform doesn't have to be sci-fi, it can be, but it can be anything that fits that umbrella."
Concluding the interview on a much lighter tone, Blomkamp also touched upon his personal connection to He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe - the cult favorite TV show pops up as a fun little easter egg during the movie:
"Around the time we got a VHS player, I was like pretty young, and He-Man literally blew my f***ing mind, like it was the coolest thing in the goddamned world. And then, when we would go to the video store and there would be like tons of He-Man's that I hadn't seen, it was some sort of like mental overload that I was like, "Oh my God." I literally don't think I could attain that level of like cerebral activity like ever again... I just wanted the robot to experience what I experienced"
The full interview can be viewed in its entirety over on IGN. The director went on to discuss Chappie's core themes in detail, including the morality of the pursuit for artificial intelligence. If you're a fan of Blomkamp's work, or simply just science fiction in general, I would thoroughly recommend checking it out - it makes for a fascinating read!
What about you guys - have you seen Chappie? If so, what did you think? Did it warrant a sequel in your opinion? Sound off with your thoughts and comments below!