Neill Blomkamp

Active - 2003 - Present | Born - Sep 17, 1979 in Johannesburg, South Africa | Genres - Science Fiction

Biography by Cammila Collar

South African-born short film director Neill Blomkamp established himself in his field with a hand-held, first-person camera style. He also became highly sought after for his ability to blend computer-generated effects with a film's naturalistic elements, soon becoming a popular director for commercials. He provided his visual effects services for a number of American TV shows, like Smallville and Dark Angel, before combining his skill sets as the director of a feature film, helming the sci-fi epic District 9 in 2009. The film earned strong reviews, and was a box-office hit. In addition, Blomkamp earned a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination from the academy for his work on his debut.

http://www.allmovie.com/artist/neill-blomkamp-p484717

Blomkamp began as a professional animator at the age of sixteen, working for Deadtime under Simon Hansen and Sharlto Copley in South Africa. His family relocated to Vancouver when Blomkamp was 18, where he enrolled in Vancouver Film School.

In 2003, Blomkamp was commissioned to illustrate photo-real future aircraft for Popular Science`s "Next century in Aviation" and in 2004 was commissioned to illustrate "The Future of the Automobile". Blomkamp worked as a visual effects artist at The Embassy Visual Effects in Vancouver as well as Rainmaker Digital Effects.

In 2007, Blomkamp directed a trilogy of live-action short films (known collectively as Landfall) set in the Halo universe, to promote the release of Halo 3. In 2008, Halo: Combat, the second of the three installments, won the Cannes Lions 2008 – Film Lions Grand Prix.

Blomkamp was then slated to direct his first feature-length film, an adaptation of the Halo video game, before funding for that film collapsed. Peter Jackson, the producer of that project, then decided to produce District 9 instead, an adaptation of Blomkamp`s earlier short film Alive in Joburg (which had been produced by Hansen and Copley). The film, directed by Blomkamp and starring Copley, was released in mid-August 2009, to rave reviews.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neill_Blomkamp