I would like to make something clear right off the bat: I mean absolutely no disrespect to any person who might call themselves a fan of the movies below and even celebrate the fact that many found them impressive and satisfying. However, I — as well as many other moviegoers and critics alike — unfortunately, found them to be lackluster and disappointing, especially when you consider the potential they had to be something really great based on their otherwise unique and amusing concepts. So, please bear with me as I explain why I feel the following films could be considered a missed opportunity.

In Time (2011)

This sci-fi thriller from writer and director Andrew Niccol is set in a future in which people stop aging past 25, but can only continue to live if they have enough time, which has, literally, been adopted as society's only currency. With a concept like that, In Time could have been one of Justin Timberlake’s best movies, but, the execution is widely seen as just a bland, cliche-ridden mess.

65 (2023)

I was on board for 65 based on the idea of seeing Academy Award nominee Adam Driver pitted against dinosaurs alone. Yet, somehow, writers and directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods — then best known for writing the gripping A Quiet Place — ended up putting out a sci-fi thriller that many critics, moviegoers, and myself found quite dull. 

Downsizing (2017) 

I really admire what director Alexander Payne and his co-writer, Jim Taylor, were going for with Downsizing — a Matt Damon-led satire set in a world in which shrinking to 5 inches tall proves to be a revolutionary economic solution. Yet, I found the humor weak (if not absent, to be honest) and, if it were me, I would have stuck with one social issue to comment on instead of jamming multiple into one story.

Jumper (2008)

Hayden Christensen plays a man who can instantly teleport to wherever he pleases, but must contend with a secret society determined to eliminate his kind. The mere concept behind director Doug Liman’s Jumper should constitute a winner, but critics felt that low-stakes action, aimless plot twists, and two-dimensional characters led the story nowhere.

Chappie (2015)

Movies about a friendly A.I. are nothing new, but Neill Blomkamp’s Chappie seemed to be going in an interesting direction by giving the titular robot (voiced by Sharlto Copley) a refreshing human quality and partnering him up with a pair of criminals (played by South African hip-hop duo Die Antwoord) hoping to use him for their bidding. Unfortunately, I felt the story quickly dismantled itself into a misguided mess with irritating attempts at humor and cartoonish antagonists played by Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver.

Passengers (2016)

For anyone who has not seen Passengers — in which two commercial interplanetary travelers wake up way too soon — I am afraid I must give away a major plot point hidden in the marketing to explain why I and many others were put off by it. The romantic appeal of this outer space love story is ruined when Chris Pratt's lonely protagonist intentionally and selfishly wakes up Jennifer Lawrence's character, a role the actor even admitted Adele warned her against accepting.

Bright (2017)

When I first learned about Bright, a modern-day police drama set in a storybook fantasy world from director David Ayer and writer Max Landis, I was immediately under its spell. Sadly, it broke when I watched the Will Smith and Joel Edgerton-led Netflix original that I thought was ruined by stunted and nonsensical world-building, tired cop movie cliches, weak dialogue, and an irritatingly on-the-nose social allegory.

The Wedding Ringer (2015)

Kevin Hart’s character in The Wedding Ringer makes a living posing as the best man for grooms-to-be, which I found to be a very amusing idea. Unfortunately, I thought it was wasted by generic plot conventions, uninspired humor, and a bafflingly heavy-handed execution of an already weak plot twist near the end.

Hancock (2008)

Some might believe that Hancock is one of Will Smith’s best movies — or even one of the best superhero movies not inspired by a comic book — based on its fun “degenerate Superman” concept. The promising idea impressed the action-comedy’s toughest critics, too, before the story evolved into a hokey melodrama, resulting in an uneven misstep overall in their eyes.

Transcendence (2014)

In Transcendence, Johnny Depp plays a tech inventor who uploads his consciousness into his groundbreaking software at the brink of death. However, many believe that the film, directed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Wally Pfister, does not really bother to make a unique or substantial comment on man's relationship with machines like Black Mirror and other better movies would soon after.

The Percy Jackson Movies (2010-2013)

This big-screen franchise based on Rick Riordan's young adult fantasy series never even reached completion because fans were unhappy with the unnecessary changes from the source material and critics found them simply derivative and disengaging. At least Percy Jackson and the Olympians got a second chance as a Disney+ original series years later.

Waterworld (1995)

There are those who have their reasons to call Waterworld awesome, including its brilliantly conceived concept of a dystopian Earth where land no longer exists. The rest of the world feels that the commercially unsuccessful adventure is watered down by Kevin Costner’s dull protagonist and over-the-top silliness throughout that ruins its earnest intentions.

Old (2021)

I actually have something good to say about Old, inspired by the French graphic novel Sandcastle, which follows vacationers trapped on a beach that causes rapid aging. It might have surpassed The Happening as the ultimate example of an M. Night Shyamalan movie that makes seemingly unintentional comedy out of otherwise horrifying circumstances with unconvincing character motivations and even less believable dialogue.

Sucker Punch (2011)

According to most critics, the problem with Sucker Punch, starring Emily Browning as an institutionalized young woman dreaming of an escape, is not necessarily a poor execution of its plot. They feel Zack Snyder's otherwise visually stunning, action-packed, female-driven steampunk fantasy lacks anything that could discernibly be called a "plot" and characters that offer much more than their surface value.

The Dark Tower (2017)

One of author Stephen King’s most beloved efforts is The Dark Tower, an eight-part series consisting of eight novels, a short story, and a children’s book following a gunslinger’s quest to reach the eponymous landmark in a bizarre alternate reality. Director Nicola Arcel’s 95-minute film adaptation, starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, was meant to be an introduction to a companion TV show that never happened, due to critics' belief that it was rushed and bland and fans feeling it bore little to no resemblance to the source material.

The Meg (2018)

A movie in which one of the largest aquatic predators in history — a megalodon — wreaking havoc in modern-day waters should have easily earned itself a spot among the best shark movies of all time. However, even people like me who found some enjoyment in director Jon Turtletaub’s The Meg, starring Jason Statham, agree that this thriller about such a big beast feels a little too small.

The Invention Of Lying (2009)

Star Ricky Gervais, who also co-writes and directs with Matthew Robinson, struck gold by envisioning a world in which human beings have not developed the ability to be dishonest. Yet, The Invention of Lying seems more concerned with its mean-spirited satirization — if not full-blown condemnation — of the concept of religious faith that is not as bold as it aspires to be and, quite frankly, I did not find it very funny.

The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

One of Alan Moore’s most acclaimed comic book series is The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which groups legendary literary figures like Jekyll/Hyde, the Invisible Man, and Dracula’s Bride together. The film adaptation is believed to be what drove Sir Sean Connery, who stars as Alan Quartermain, into retirement after his numerous on-set conflicts with director Stephen Norrington and personal attempt to save the picture in the editing room.

Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)

The plot of Repo! The Genetic Opera, set in a dystopian future in which transplanted organs are violently taken away from customers who miss payments, is so unique and thought-provoking, it’s no surprise it was stolen just two years later by Repo Men. I could get behind making it a musical, too, but felt the actors couldn’t carry a note and the narrative lacked any real weight, resulting in the one film from Darren Lynn Bousman (director of multiple Saw movies) that makes me squirm the most, personally.

The Age Of Adaline (2015)

Blake Lively does give a wonderful performance in the title role of The Age of Adaline, which follows a woman’s struggles to blend in over the course of several decades after mysteriously becoming immortal. That’s the best thing I can say about it, personally, as I feel the story is unfairly relegated to a hokey romantic drama that relies far too heavily on voice-over narration in even the most unnecessary moments. 

Pixels (2015)

Director Chris Columbus’ Pixels could have been a really fun sci-fi flick in which ordinary people with extraordinary video game skills are tasked with defending Earth from aliens made to look like classic 8-bit characters. Unfortunately, most moviegoers and critics alike feel it is one of Adam Sandler’s weakest films, mainly due to its consistently hollow attempts at humor.

Mortal Engines (2018)

Peter Jackson co-wrote and produced this adaptation of Phillip Reeve’s young adult novel set in a dystopian London that has been rebuilt into one large machine running out of resources. The otherwise visually spectacular Mortal Engines proved to be a critical and commercial disappointment, however, with many believing it felt too reminiscent of other and, arguably, better post-apocalyptic thrillers of the past.

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Moviegoers and critics alike do applaud the spectacular world Lana and Lily Wachowski created for Jupiter Ascending, starring Mila Kunis as a woman who discovers she is intergalactic royalty. However, they also feel that the performances are either too reserved or too outlandish, the story choices teeter between bizarre and baffling, and the otherwise inventive world-building is better suited for a TV show than a feature-length runtime.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Putting Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman in an '80s-style popcorn flick is a great idea, but fans and critics alike feel that Wonder Woman 1984 is one of the weaker DCEU entries, if not just a dip in quality from its hit 2017 predecessor. The sequel’s detractors cite overly ridiculous action sequences, awkward and broken dialogue, and the already needless return of Chris Pine’s late character, Steve Trevor, in an unnecessarily creepy way: possessing the body of a random person.

Splice (2010)

Vincenzo Natali co-writes and directs this sci-fi/horror flick starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as genetic engineers who make a breakthrough in DNA splicing that proves to have groundbreaking, but disastrous, consequences. As far as I am concerned, Splice’s intriguing nature vs. nurture commentary was ruined by one particular scene that is so revoltingly off-putting, that I cannot bear to describe it. Anyone who has seen it probably has a clue, though.

Children Of The Corn (1984)

Weak acting, weaker pacing, and special effects that were cheesy even in the ‘80s make this horror film about a town overrun with murderous children a cult classic that does not live up to its reputation, in my eyes. However, I would say I prefer this adaptation of Stephen King’s Children of the Corn over its sequels and more recent remakes from 2009 and 2020.

The Lovely Bones (2009)

Peter Jackson’s adaptation of author Alice Sebold’s young adult fantasy thriller features great performances by Saoirse Ronan as a murdered teen protagonist and an Oscar-nominated Stanley Tucci as her killer. Those who do not care for The Lovely Bones feel that even those admirable qualities are bogged down by the film’s egregious preoccupation with its CGI-heavy depiction of purgatory.

Formula 51 (2001)

Samuel L. Jackson stars as a skilled chemist looking to score big by selling his valuable product to mobsters in Formula 51, a comedy that was regarded as a weak attempt to replicate Guy Ritchie’s style upon release.

Blood Quantum (2020)

“Bad” is truly an overstatement for how I feel about Blood Quantum, which follows indigenous Canadians immune to a virus that kills and reanimates victims through biting. However, I do find it largely unsatisfying how a film that boasts one of the most refreshingly unique concepts for a zombie movie I have ever heard suffers from a narrative that resorts to all-too-familiar cliches in the subgenre.

Elysium (2013)

Following the success of District 9, Neill Blomkamp made a second attempt at a socially conscious sci-fi thriller with Elysium, in which Matt Damon plays one of many impoverished Earthlings longing for an artificial planet where the wealthy live free of health concerns. The on-the-nose political commentary is not the issue, or, at least as much as the generic action movie conventions, surface-level characters, and Jodie Foster's lazy antagonistic performance are.

The Purge (2013)

The Purge cleverly imagines a future in which all crime is legal for one night of the year, but critics feel that it does not utilize its concept to its full potential. As a result, the Blumhouse hit is just another unremarkable home invasion thriller, which spawned a franchise that still has rarely explored the potential of its concept beyond the belief that the world is full of sociopaths.

Prometheus (2012)

Ridley Scott's space travel epic, Prometheus, rides high on glorious visuals and moments of intense horror, but low in imagination and brains in just about every facet. Not to mention, attempting to offer some origin for the Alien franchises’ flagship creature, the Xenomorph, is, arguably, unnecessary enough already

I am a firm believer in the phrase, “If at first you don’t succeed, try again.” Thus, these are the few examples of movies I would actually love to see earn a remake with the hope that they could be reimagined into something that reaches their full potential. 

If you’re a fan of Star Wars movies and TV shows, Diego Luna is a name that you've probably heard over the past several years. Known for his role in the popular Star Wars movie, Rogue One, where he played Cassian Andor, the actor has become even more popular because of that character, to the point that he is receiving his own Disney+ show, appropriately named, Andor. 

But, Luna has been around in Hollywood for some time, with appearances in both movies and TV shows, and if you’re like me and you’re looking for something new to watch the actor in, these are several of his best projects to watch - from action films to Netflix original shows. 

Narcos: Mexico (Netflix)

Developed as a companion series to the Netflix show, Narcos, Narcos: Mexico tells the story of the drug trade in Mexico, and how it was established from the ground up and became one of the biggest criminal businesses in the world. 

If you want to talk about one of Diego Luna's best roles, this definitely makes the cut. He played Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, the leader of the Guadalajara Cartel - and the person who really created the drug cartel as we know it today in Mexico. He was stellar in this role, and while he didn’t return for Season 3 of the show, his first two seasons as one of the main stars is some of my favorite of his work. Seriously, if you’ve never seen him in this show, watch it, especially if you’re interested in crime dramas. 

Stream Narcos: Mexico on Netflix.

Milk (Hulu)

Next up, we have the Academy Award-winning film, Milk. a biographical drama about Harvey Milk, who was a pioneer in the history of gay rights and became a politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. 

Diego Luna portrayed Jack Lira in the film and he is so great in this role, especially alongside his fellow cast members, where you really get to see their chemistry shine, but he also brings so much charisma to the role that you can’t help but love him. The entire Milk cast is incredibly talented, with stars such as Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, and more all having their time to shine, but I’ve always loved seeing Luna as Jack anytime I’ve watched this movie - and the story is incredibly uplifting as well. 

Stream Milk on Hulu.
Rent/Buy Milk on Amazon.

Contraband (Hulu)

Moving on, we now have the action thriller, Contraband. This exciting movie follows the story of a smuggler who is on a quest to protect his brother-in-law from an evil drug lord, so, he travels to Panama in order to get millions of dollars, all in counterfeit money. 

The film, which was based on the Icelandic movie, Reykjavik-Rotterdam, has many stars that you might recognize besides Diego Luna, who played Gonzalo in the film. Some of the biggest names are Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster - even J.K. Simmons, but I personally enjoy Luna’s role more, as he’s a badass here and shows just how skillful he is in action roles, and considering this came before he was in Rogue One, we really get to see him shine in a kick-butt part. 

Stream Contraband on Hulu.
Rent/Buy Contraband on Amazon.

Y Tu Mamá También (AMC+)

On to the Mexican film, Y tu mama tambien (which means “and your mom, too”). This road movie, directed by acclaimed moviemaker Alfonso Cuarón, tells the story of two teenage boys who end up taking a road trip with a woman in her twenties, and the journey they go on in this coming-of-age story. 

For those who don’t know, prior to Luna crossing over into the American filmmaking industry, he starred in plenty of Mexican films, and I think this was one of his best. I love my coming-of-age movies, like Booksmart, but there’s just something about films such as Y tu mama tambien that hit home - specifically because of the acting. Diego Luna is fantastic in his starring role, and the movie even garnered a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film - and Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards. 

Stream Y tu mamá también on AMC+ via Amazon Prime.
Rent/Buy Y tu mamá también on Amazon.

Elysium (Starz)

Do you want another action film that’s mixed in with dystopian science fiction? Check out Elysium. This film, starring Matt Damon, tells the story of two worlds, one that is luxurious and for the rich and powerful, and the other a ravaged earth, where the poor live, and how one man might be able to bring equality through a dangerous mission. 

Like many of the films on this list, Elysium is stacked with stars, but I freaking love Diego Luna in his role of Julio, the best friend to Max (Matt Damon). Their chemistry is awesome and their scenes always drew my attention to the screen. The film itself is also so much fun as well, with a lot of social commentary on many issues that we talk about often today, such as immigration, the justice system, and so much more. 

Stream Elysium on Starz.
Rent/Buy Elysium on Amazon.

The Book Of Life (Disney+)

This is one of my personal favorites. The Book of Life is a wonderfully animated film that follows a bullfighter who goes on an incredible journey to the afterlife on the annual Day of the Dead celebration in order to fulfill the wishes of his loved ones. 

Diego Luna starred in The Book of Life, where he voiced Manolo Sanchez, and I loved how he did it. Luna has such a distinct voice that you can tell instantly that it’s him, but he’s still able to make the character of Manolo his own and that’s something I can really appreciate. The film has a full cast of stars as well, such as Zoe Saldana, Channing Tatum, Christina Applegate, and many, many others, and it’s a great movie to watch for Latinx representation. 

Stream The Book of Life on Disney+.
Rent/Buy The Book of Life on Amazon.

If Beale Street Could Talk (Amazon Rental)

This romantic drama always makes me feel some type of way - and it will for you as well. In If Beale Street Could Talk, we follow a woman who is on a mission to somehow clear her lover’s name after he is wrongfully accused of a crime before their child is born. 

This movie, man. Ugh. I barely even have the words to talk about it because it makes me so emotional. Diego Luna plays the role of Pedrocito, a friend of Fonny, the male lead in the couple, and while his role is small in comparison to this large cast of players, I always love the scenes he was in, as his charisma and chemistry with his co-stars bounces off the screen. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, you definitely should, especially if you love romantic dramas and good music - pretty sure I’ve listened to “Agape” too many times, now. 

Rent/Buy If Beale Street Could Talk on Amazon.

A Rainy Day In New York (Peacock)

If you’re looking for a romantic comedy instead of a drama that Diego Luna starred in, check out A Rainy Day in New York, directed by Woody Allen. In this star-studded film, we follow a couple who go on a weekend trip to New York City where the girl is trying to interview a film director for her newspaper, and the boy wishes to deepen their relationship - but of course, nothing goes as planned.  

Diego Luna plays Francisco Vega, a film star who has a really good story with one of the main characters, Ashleigh (played by Elle Fanning), and I love the scenes they had together whenever I’ve seen this film. Luna and Fanning have such amazing chemistry and their story, out of the many in this film, is one of the most interesting. This movie has plenty of other stars too, such as Selena Gomez, Timothée Chalamet, and more, so this is the one to watch. 

Stream A Rainy Day in New York on Peacock.
Rent/Buy A Rainy Day in New York on Amazon.

Wander Darkly (Hulu)

If you want just a pure drama, you have to check out Wander Darkly. This movie, starring Sienna Miller and Diego Luna, tells the story of a troubled couple who get into a car accident - but after this, they go on a journey through each other’s memories in order to help them repair what they lost - if not for themselves, then for their baby girl. 

This movie does something to you. It’s one of those films where there are twists and moments that I really don’t want to spoil here. All I’ll say is that Diego Luna and Sienna Miller show amazing star power in this film and played the roles of Matteo and Adrienne perfectly, and their characters, one way or another, will make you cry - in a good way, I promise.

Stream Wander Darkly on Hulu.
Rent/Buy Wander Darkly on Amazon.

Rogue One (Disney+)

It’s why you’re here, isn’t it? Rogue One: A Star Wars Story acts as a prequel to the original Star Wars trilogy, following rebels who are banding together in order to steal the blueprints for the Death Star, which was the Rebel Alliance's first ever victory that was spoken about in the first film. 

Arguably, this is the role that made Diego Luna such a household name, especially if you love Star Wars, and that’s because his role as Cassian Andor was so badass and this movie is just fantastic. He was smart, skillful, and would do anything for the alliance to gain ground, and while what happened to his character in the film was sad, it doesn’t change the fact that we’re getting a whole series dedicated to Andor on Disney+. I, for one, am so excited to see Diego Luna return to this role - and I might as well re-watch Rogue One in the meantime. 

Stream Rogue One on Disney+.
Rent/Buy Rogue One on Amazon.

With so many picks on this list, you’ll be entertained for hours with Diego Luna content, and if not, you can always wait until September 21, 2022, when Andor drops on Disney+. I know I’ll be counting down the days. Will you? 

In retrospect, director Neill Blomkamp’s sophomore directorial effort, Elysium, was a disappointment. While not a bad film, it certainly does pale in comparison to the filmmaker’s debut - District 9 - and was ultimately a rather forgettable sci-fi feature. As it turns out, these failings aren’t lost on the movie’s filmmaker, and now he’s come forward to admit that he "fucked it up."

Blomkamp is currently on the promotional tour for his latest movie, Chappie, and it was while sitting down with Uproxx that the South African filmmaker revealed his disappointment with the way that Elysium came out. Rather than putting the blame on an external force, however, he instead acknowledged that the real issues with the movie came from core script issues that should have been worked out before the film got rolling. He told the site,

On the brighter side of things, Neill Blomkamp did admit that he does have appreciation for the work that was done on the movie aesthetically. He's still proud of the costume and production design, as well as the special effects, but feels that they hung off of a "not totally formed skeletal system." Given these issues, the filmmaker was asked why the release of the movie wasn’t delayed while more work was done to make it better, and the simple explanation was that the director didn’t really recognize the issues until he got some distance from the project. "You can’t tell," Blomkamp said. "You don’t know. You’re just in it."

I will still happily defend Elysium, as I still see it as a thoughtful bit of sci-fi armed with great action and solid performances from Matt Damon and Sharlto Copley. That being said, its issues are pretty clear, from the fact that the story stays Earth-bound for far too long, to it’s at-times messy logic, to the fact that it just didn’t have any kind of real resonating impact that stays with you after exiting the theater. It also doesn’t help that the nature of Hollywood is to compare the movie to District 9, which is one of the best science-fiction movies of the modern era.

Do you agree with Neill Blomkamp's in-retrospect assessment of Elysium? Hit the comments below with your thoughts.

While it's usually James Cameron's Avatar that is forced to regularly try and shut down lawsuits claiming theft of intellectual property, today it's another recently-released sci-fi epic that is being thrown into the court system. The Wrap is reporting that a screenwriter named Steve Wilson Briggs has brought a lawsuit against Sony Pictures, TriStar pictures, Media Rights Capital, QED International and writer/director Neill Blomkamp, claiming that they all worked together to steal his idea for the Matt Damon-starring action movie Elysium.

According to the claim, Briggs wrote a screenplay called Butterfly Driver back in May 2005 and he claims that Blomkamp and the studios stole elements from his idea, including the "plot, characters, unusual settings, themes, conflict, catalyst, crisis, climax-twist, the hero’s unique 'character-affiliation,' the hero’s 'keepsake necklace' and more." The plaintiff claims that he registered a revised version of his script with the WGA-West in December of 2005, and then about two years later in February 2007 he posted it in its entirety to the screenwriting website TriggerStreet.com. It was on this site that the writer claims Blomkamp had access to his material. Briggs brought his script to the U.S. Copyright Office in June of this year to prepare his claim.

In their write-up of the story The Wrap notes that, "There are indeed a number of similarities between the two scripts, as alleged in the lawsuit, though these types of claims are commonplace in Hollywood, particularly with regard to blockbuster studio movies." Blomkamp's film is set in a future where the middle and lower classes are forced to live on a dying Earth while all those in the upper class live on a state-of-the-art space station that has completely eliminated all disease. Damon stars as a mechanic who is poisoned and left with only days to live, giving him no other option than to try and fly to the space station and cure himself.

What differentiates this case from many others like it is that Elysium was really only a modest success at the box office - unlike Avatar, which, of course, is the highest grossing movie of all time. Made for $115 million, the movie managed to bank only $92 million when it was released back in August, but made up for that total by pulling in $184 million internationally (bringing the final total to about $272 million). There is no mention of how much Briggs is asking for in his lawsuit against the studios and the filmmaker, but you can probably expect that he wants a good chunk of that money.

Briggs, who is a teacher's aide at Sequoia High School in Redwood City, California, has only one produced credit on his IMDb page: a film titled The Amazing Mr. Excellent that he co-directed, wrote, produced, assisted edit and acted in. Because the internet is a ridiculously cool tool, you can actually watch the film in its entirety below.

With so many titles to choose from, Netflix Instant's library can be overwhelming. So we bring you this biweekly column as a tool to cut through the clutter by highlighting some now streaming titles that pair well with the latest theatrical releases.

Looking to Elysium, Kick-Ass 2, and Lee Daniels’ The Butler for inspiration, we've pulled together a selection of dystopian science fiction, dark superhero stories, and docudramas that chronicle major moments in U.S. history.

Elysium

As follow-up to his critically heralded District 9, writer-director Neill Blomkamp presents a story of class struggle set in 2154. Elysium is a space station that houses Earth’s wealthiest citizens in an ever-lovely manufactured environment free of crime and disease. On their home planet below, the poor and sick scrape by with big dreams of escape. But this class separation may be shattered when one scrappy have-not straps on a superhuman exoskeleton and aims to take Elysium down. Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, and Sharlto Copley co-star; Blomkamp directs. (Read our full review here.)

Science fiction is a genre that often warns us of the ills in society’s present that could lead to horrific futures. Will we force children to murder each other for our amusement? Will emotions become criminal? Or will the rise of the machines push humanity into debauched chaos? Find out with these three dystopian dramas.

The Hunger Games (2012) Based on the best-selling YA novel by Suzanne Collins, this teen-centered adventure follows young Katniss Everdeen, a impoverished girl sent to fight in a cruel child competition set up by a tyrannical government. To survive, she must be the last one standing, but can she strike down the sweet boy who once saved her family from starvation? Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Woody Harrelson star; Gary Ross directs.

Equilibrium (2002) Christian Bale fronts this thriller that has him playing a trench-coat wearing cop in a fascist future where emotions are outlawed, a ruling enforced but subduing the populace with a mood-dulling drug. But when this law enforcer skips a dose of his prescribed mood meds, he awakes with feelings he refuses to give up. And so becomes a threat to this stoic society. Emily Watson and Taye Diggs co-star; Kurt Wimmer directs.

Metropolis Restored (1927) Arguably the most iconic dystopian drama ever made, Metropolis is set in the not-so-distant future of 2026 where the wealth disparity has become so extreme that poor live underground while the wealthy enjoy the jaunty splendor of the surface world. But when one rich man falls for a humble have-not girl, he decides to lead the charge to social revolt! Will his efforts be undone by a chaos-spurring robot who dances with fiery abandon? Note: this version is a recently restored edition that contains the most original footage since the film toured the world in 1928. Brigitte Helm, Joh Fredersen, and Gustav Frohlich star; Fritz Lang directs.

Kick-Ass 2

In this sequel to the R-rated superhero romp Kick-Ass, Dave “Kick-Ass” Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) grows his ranks of vigilante crime fighters while his old ally the Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) gears up to wreak a bloody vengeance. Chloe Moretz, Morris Chestnut, and Jim Carrey co-star; Jeff Wadlow directs. (Read our full review here.)

Kick-Ass won fans by offering a quirky new take on the superhero genre with a deeply dark edge. If you prefer anti-heroes to clean-cut good guys, and relish in a good heartbreaking backstories, you’re sure to salivate over these three super selections.

Hellboy (2004) Based on the cult comic book series by Mike Mignola, this fantastical feature unveils the adventures of a pack of misfit heroes way weirder than the X-Men, and nowhere near as pretty as The Avengers. Ron Perlman stars as Hellboy, a demon brought to Earth by Nazis but breaking from expectations by fighting against the forces of evil. John Hurt, Selma Blair, and Doug Jones co-star; Guillermo del Toro directs.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008) The web sensation created by Joss Whedon stars Neil Patrick Harris as the titular baddie who dreams of becoming a supervillain. But while he uses freeze rays and evil schemes to achieve infamy, his efforts are thwarted again and again by the arrogant local superhero Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion). But Horrible finds a new inspiration for menace when the Captain steps in steals the heart of his long-longed for crush (Felicia Day). It’s one part rousing musical, and one part dark drama. And Whedon directs, so you can probably guess what that means for its finale!

Batman: Under The Red Hood (2010) Batman has faced plenty of dangerous foes, but none like the new vigilante that’s stalking him and his former sidekick, Dick Grayson. This enigmatic figure is known only as Red Hood, and he has a hard-earned grudge with Gotham’s greatest hero. Who is he? Batman will have to solve this mystery while battling the Joker, Ra’s al Ghul and Black Mask. Jensen Ackles, Neil Patrick Harris, Bruce Greenwood, John Di Maggio, Jason Isaacs, and Wade Williams lend their voices; Brandon Vietti directs.

Lee Daniel’s The Butler

The filmmaker behind Precious digs into the evolution of race relations in the United States through the true story of one African-American butler who worked in the White House for 34 years, under the likes of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Reagan. Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey star; Robin Williams, Melissa Leo, James Marsden, John Cusack, Alan Rickman and many, many more co-star. Daniels directs. (Read our full review here.)

It’s an incredibly ambitious goal to attempt to capture the complicated history of race relations in the U.S. within a single film, but sometimes a narrative movie or TV series is an incredible tool to investigate a particular era. For a look back on some of America’s dark but defining moments, check out these three titles. One centers on the greatest feud the nation ever knew. Another follows the story of one soldier that speaks for many. And the last unravels the mystery of a serial killer who wrought terror and infected the popular culture.

Hatfields & McCoys (2012) The Civil War was famously a conflict that turned brother against brother, but the legendary feud of neighbors Hatfield and McCoy began after their patriarchs returned from the battle field. The History Channel unfurled the beginnings of this gruesome feud that stretched from the Hatfield’s West Virginian home across the river to the Kentucky land of the McCoys with this heralded mini-series. Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton star.

Born on the Fourth of July (1989) This twice Academy Award-nominated drama unfolds the story of Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic, finding inspiration in his best-selling autobiography of the same name. Tom Cruise stars as Kovic, playing him from an idealistic youth who willfully enlists in the Marine Corps, to a proud soldier on the front lines, to a wounded vet and activist who spoke out against the war whatever the cost. Kyra Sedgwick, Tom Berenger, and Frank Whaley co-star; Oliver Stone directs.

Zodiac (2007) In the 1960s and 1970s, a serial killer who called himself Zodiac was the scourge of the California police force, leaving a string of bizarre murders, strange codes, and public threats he demanded be published in newspapers. He made headlines, spurred fear, and inspired the movie Dirty Harry. The unknown man also became an obsession to one cartoonist who risked everything—even his own life and family—to crack the case that had so long confounded the police force. Be warned, while this film makes it quite clear how this killer became a national obsession, it is also so chilling it can give you goosebumps on the hottest summer day. Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, and Robert Downey Jr. co-star; David Fincher directs.

Let's be honest-- predicting and understanding box office involves a whole lot of guesswork and 20/20 hindsight. If anyone could accurately know what audiences will go for, Disney never would have poured a bunch of cash into The Lone Ranger, and Warner Bros. would have filmed all three Hangover movies back-to-back before the actors started asking for more money. There are safe bets-- sequels, major stars, animated films-- and there are gambles-- everything else-- but nobody, truly, knows how it will shake out until the audiences actually start buying tickets.

That said, the summer of 2013 has been incredibly unpredictable no matter who you are and how much you know. Aside from the sure-thing hits that really did turn out to be hits-- Iron Man 3, Man of Steel, Monsters University-- and the smelled-'em-from-100-yards stinkers that tanked-- Lone Ranger, After Earth, R.I.P.D.-- the surprises have been all over the place. Movies like Despicable Me 2 and Fast & Furious 6, which were expected to be big, turned out to be gigantic-- Despicable Me 2 is currently the year's second-biggest movie, just behind Iron Man 3. Movies that nobody expected much from at all, like The Great Gatsby and Now You See Me and The Conjuring, turned into surprise smashes. And movies that seemed to have every possible element for success, like White House Down and The Smurfs 2, fell flat on their faces-- and the people behind them still can't figure out why.

Both White House Down and The Smurfs 2 were released by Sony, and this weekend that studio notched another disappointment with Elysium. As The Los Angeles Times points out the film opened the exact same weekend as Neill Blomkamp's surprise 2009 hit District 9, and featured many of the same intelligent sci-fi elements with the added bonus on Matt Damon. But Elysium made just $30.5 million-- enough to win the weekend, but a fair bit behind District 9's $37.5 million debut. Elysium didn't have nearly the strong reviews that District 9 did-- a 66% Rotten Tomatoes score compared to 90%-- and didn't have the element of surprise that gave District 9 such strong word of mouth. But surely that shouldn't have been enough to keep people away from a sci-fi summer movie starring Matt Damon… right?

Normally this is where I would come up with answers, but I'm as baffled as anyone, and at least comforted by the fact that the LA Times people seem baffled as well. But you, dear reader-- you're the people causing all this confusion. How have you chosen what to see this summer? Have you noticed it being unpredictable? And, if you didn't catch Elysium, what kept you away? These are all mostly questions without easy answers, but we don't get anywhere if we don't ask them. Sound off in the comments and let us know what gives.

There was a lot of new movies demanding attention this weekend, and the love from audiences was spread pretty thin.

Number one went to Elysium, banking just $30 million. That's a let down for director Neill Blomkamp whose last rated R sci-fi film (and his first every feature film as well), District 9 managed a $37 million opening in 2009, and that was without big names like Damon and Foster on the billing.

Raunch-com We're The Millers took second place with $26 million, bringing its total since opening earlier this week to $38 million, putting it solidly in the black compared with its $37 million production budget.

Disney Animation Studio's first attempt at making a Pixar spin-off fell flat. Planes, a limp and poorly received effort by Disney to capitolize on its sister studio's Cars franchise, opened in 3rd place with just $22 million. The weak debut not only falls short by Pixar opening standards, it's a low ball for Disney as well, whose recent animated features like Wreck-It Ralph and Tangled opened nearer to $50 million.

The final new comer this weekend, sequel Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. had a debut that might well be the final nail in the franchise's coffin. After the first entry Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief had a dubious run with just $226 million world-wide, doubts of a second were tossed around. Sea of Monsters had an opening of just $14 million, with only $33 million in world-wide sales to date against its $90 million budget. Not exactly a vote of olypmic proportions.

For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:

Between Iron Man 3, Pacific Rim and Elysium, there’s been an emerging trend of sci-fi movies exploring the potential for linking the human mind and machines. In Pacific Rim humans shared a sort of brain bond to properly handle the neural load required to manipulate massive Jaegers; this also gives them access to each others’ memories and thoughts. In Elysium, the hero played by Matt Damon is supped up with a robotic outer suit making him essentially a cyborg. Having seen both films, I wondered how close we were these kind of scientific breakthroughs, so I turned to my childhood friend and cousin Jim Salvia, who went from being a brainy kid to an electrical engineer who while getting his PhD at Stanford worked on the technology that now allows quadriplegics to operate computers with their brains.

Having had what he describes as “some exposure to brain-machine interfaces,” he seemed the perfect person to ask about the science of these science-fiction movies. Though he hasn’t seen each film in full, he watched over their trailers and gave me a rundown on the man/machine tech as he saw it.

First off, Pacific Rim, which has Jaegers active in 2025, is almost pure fiction. Salvia told me, “Sure, we know what regions of the brain contribute to things like impulse control, positional awareness, task planning, etc. We know what chemicals are involved and what processes are important. A neurosurgeon could make a few targeted cuts and remove your ability to speak or to form long-term memories, for example, while leaving the rest of your mental faculties largely unchanged. But the inner workings of the system are so ridiculously complex that we haven't even scratched the surface. We are, in my opinion, centuries away from having anything like the technology in Pacific Rim that allows people to share thoughts and memories.”

Basically, things like thoughts, memories, emotions, and consciousness are still beyond science’s grasp. However, the tech of Elysium’s cyborg is far more attainable, as it essentially would require much less of the brain-bot bond. In the movie, Damon is struck low by radiation poisoning, and given five days to live. To make the best out of this time and enable a run at Elysium that holds the key to his cure, he allows an interplanetary coyote to hook him up to a third generation exoskeleton that locks into his brain. “It's one thing to interpret signals from the brain that are used to drive muscles,” Salvia offered, “After all, muscles take pretty simple commands: contract, relax.” In fact, he believes we could see this kind of technology within 50 to 100 years. Meaning, Elysium, which is set in 2154, is dead on in this particular element of its science fiction.

Below is trailer I sent Salvia to make his analysis:

“The brief glimpse that I got of Matt Damon's cyborg features from the trailer suggests a device that is sensing his motion or intended motion and then augmenting his speed and strength by moving in unison with his arms and legs. It's conceptually simple.” Salvia deduced, “In fact, the common term for this type of system is ‘exoskeleton suit,’ and they are already being developed by the department of defense.” That reflects what the filmmakers say in the newly unveiled featurette below, though they call theirs a “Hulk suit.”

Of course, we’re not there yet. But what does Salvia think will take us 50 to 100 years to nail down? He was good enough to break it down: “A system like this needs a few key technologies: 1] an ability to sense signals from Matt's body (from his nervous system or perhaps his skeletal muscles) 2] environmental sensors (to detect things like acceleration, position, strain, rotation, etc.) 3] a lot of computational power to interpret those signals 4] motors and actuators to drive the limbs and 5] a high-density energy source to power items 1]-4]. Of these 5 items, the first one and the last one would likely be the hardest to develop.”

“Sensing Matt's intended motion can happen in a variety of ways,” Salvia says. “Researchers have shown that they can read motion-related instructions directly from a person's brain using electrodes surgically inserted under the skull. However, the data rate and accuracy from such a system is very poor. For example, if you wanted to drive a robotic finger with your thoughts and have it type a message for you on a keyboard, you would be hard pressed to type a word per minute, and that word would probably have a lot of typos.” This is a key area that separates Damon’s “Hulk suit” from what we have available today. But Salvia also pointed out that today’s suits require extensive physical therapy. For example, if Damon’s character would need years of practice before he could run and jump as he does in the trailer. But there are other potential methods for the brain to communicate with the exoskeleton.

“Other options would be to sense the signals going to Matt's muscles either at the spine or closer to the muscles themselves. While I have heard of research along these lines as well, I'm less familiar with the pros/cons of the approach,” Salvia allows. “Finally the system could directly sense the contractions of Matt's muscles and then act to augment his strength. I'm not familiar at all with technology like this, but with hundreds of implanted strain sensors it would be theoretically possible.”

He goes on: “Environmental sensors for acceleration, rotation, etc. already exist and are definitely not the limiting technology. The required computational power isn't trivial (you'd probably need something akin to today's supercomputer), but at the rate that the industry is improving we should be there in a few decades. Also, actuator technology probably wouldn't be a limiting factor assuming that you have sufficient energy to drive them. Which brings us to the question of a power source.”

The power source is where an effective exoskeleton suit demands major technological advancements. In the film, the hulk suit’s battery life is never brought up. But in real life, Salvia declares, “We would need a huge breakthrough in battery technology to be able to store and deliver the kind of power necessary to move Matt's arms and legs with enough strength and speed to justify his cyborg addition. Unfortunately, battery technology is advancing very slowly. Right now the highest density energy sources that we have are chemical fuels like gasoline. Converting those fuels into useful electrical or mechanical energy requires an engine--something usually not known for its feather-like weight (not to mention heat, noise, etc.), so it would be really inconvenient to carry around on one's back. Other options like fuel cells have their own limitations, but maybe they'll get there some day.”

To see where we are with exoskeleton technology, Salvia offered this video which uses Iron Man 3 as a jumping off point to discuss exoskeleton suits.

Elysium opens everywhere this weekend.

Bunch of movies on the Rotten slate this week, which means we shouldn’t waste any time getting down to business. This time we’ll take a trip to Elysium, sun some drugs with the Millers, fly a bunch of animated planes and touch base with Percy Jackson again.

There's a note at the bottom of this post about the next couple of Rotten Weeks.

Just remember, I'm not reviewing these movies, but rather predicting where they'll end up on the Tomatometer. Let's take a look at what This Rotten Week has to offer.

Elysium

As I sit in my office (bedroom) writing this, I do so listening to the electronic dance pop sounds of 103.5 KTU and deafening whirr of a circular saw coming from my middle-aged, chain-smoking neighbor who’s out front of his place fixing his front door at 8:30 AM on a summer Sunday. So yeah, Elysium doesn’t sound so f@#$ing bad right now.

And while I don’t picture myself the Matt Damon-type, retrofitted with an exoskeleton and packing a futuristic boom-boom device, stalking across the street to “silence” Mr. Fix-it and busting ass for Eden posthaste, there is something to be said for creating a little Utopian getaway out in space. If my neighborhood is any indication, Earth is going to hell in a handbasket sooner than later.

Directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9-90%), Elysium posits what would happen if Earth became a planetary-sized ghetto while the rich folks look down on us nobodies from their lofty perch in the sky. Honestly, it appears more than a little bit heavy-handed. Where Blomkamp’s first movie explored the cultural tension and atrocities of apartheid through the lens of aliens in South Africa with a fairly deft and entertaining hand, this film looks to bludgeon the issues of universal health care and immigration reform over the viewers’ heads. (Note: this has nothing to do with my own views on these subjects, I’m a fairly liberal dude. I just don’t like being force fed policy reform through movies.)

Early reviews are a decidedly mixed bag, with some appreciating the look and feel of the flick, while other were put off by the overt messages of liberal reform. I think this probably depends how a critic walked into the theater. What kind of policy baggage they carry with them. Because of this, the reviews will continue to trend toward the middle. And until we all find our way to Shangri-La, I’ll continue sitting here enjoying the suicide-inducing din of suburban sprawl gone awry (maybe that can be Blomkamp’s next film). The Rotten Watch for Elysium is 49%

Way back in the heyday of 2010, this column was born out of a need for readers to argue the gravity and weight of Tomatometer scores for upcoming movies. That first column, and attempt at predicting Rotten Tomato scores, included Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (Predicted: 69% Actual: 49%). Since then I’ve grown as a person, lover and prognosticator. Now, more than three years later, I have a chance to make amends on that original, slightly misguided prediction.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (I guess he dumped the Olympians) is the sequel and part of the insanely popular series by Rick Riordan who has made enough money writing these books that he could probably build a Mount Olympus of his own. It follows the adventures of a few mediocre young adult actors as they work their way through a bland script heavy on average-looking special effects. Will they find the Golden Fleece in the Bermuda Triangle? Will they stop the giant bull-looking robot thing that comes to their home? Will these actors and actresses be out of Hollywood in the next seven years? I’m answering yes, yes, looking likely to those three questions.

Thor Freudenthal’s other work (Diary of a Wimpy Kid-53%, Hotel for Dogs-46%) hovers right in that mediocre range of “enjoyable to people under thirteen years old, unwatchable to everyone else.” Successful careers have been made on much, much less. This flick looks no different. It’ll appeal to its demographic and no one else. That’ll probably mean a nice box office draw but a lower Tomatometer score. I just can’t imagine a majority of critics walking out of the theater happy with the product. Second time’s a charm on Percy Jackson. I’m nailing this score. The Rotten Watch for Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is 36%

How soon until the premise for this movie is completely dated? In a couple of years, when we are all buying our pot from the produce aisle in the local ShopRite, the idea of shuttling a makeshift family across the Mexican border in a RV stacked to the ceiling with bricks of marijuana will seem laughable right? Can’t you just pick this stuff up with way less hassle in Denver right now? I’m no drug buff, but seems like a needless risk to run up against DEA patrols because of pot. But until we can use coupons to buy our stuff, Jason Sudeikis sees it reasonable to pack a stripper (Jennifer Aniston), naive teenage boy (Will Poulter) and a hoodlum (Emma Roberts) into the Winnebago and get a shipment for a narcissistic millionaire (Ed Helms).

The director with the preppiest name of all time, Rawson Marshall Thurber helms this flick after guiding a success in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (70%), a flop with Mysteries of Pittsburgh (12%) and my personal favorite commercial of all time Terry Tate: Office Linebacker. (If you haven’t seen this before, enjoy three plus minutes of commercial perfection.)

The trailer contains its fair share of laughs (mostly from Poulter) and the cast is strong, but I’m not seeing enough here to predict a critical success. I like my comedy trailers to blow me out of the funny water and I’m not sure if this one does the trick. It appears to rely on some hokey plot devices (Aniston has to strip to prove herself, Roberts is over-the-top delinquent, etc) and I can imagine a scenario where this falls very flat. That being said, I’m going to hedge a bit mostly because of the cast. I was wrong with another Sudeikis/ Aniston raunchy comedy Horrible Bosses (Predicted: 44% Actual: 69%) which has me worried about reading too much into the trailer. If you think I’m confused, congrats, you’re right. I don’t think I’d feel great about this prediction no matter what. The Rotten Watch for We’re the Millers is 52%

Wondering what is happening in skies above the world of Pixar’s Cars? Me neither. But prepare yourself for the answer anyway. Planes deals with Dusty Crophopper and his fear of heights as he prepares to go from lowly farm plane to a celebrated flying racer. All while soaring above Lightning McQueen, Mater and company.

DisneyToon Studios typically releases direct-to-video flicks including Little Rotten Week’s absolute favorite mind-numbing fare, the Tinker Bell movies. (Sidenote: I know more about the Fairies of Pixie Hollow than any grown adult who doesn’t work for Disney should.) This flick was supposed to go that route until Disney saw the final product and thought it could take a run in theaters.

Director Klay Hall has his work hit the big screen for the first time after working on King of the Hill, Father of the Pride and of course the much ballyhooed Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure. I suppose it’s a feather in his cap that the studio saw enough to change its original plan and put it out for the masses. I don’t think it ends up with overwhelmingly positive reviews considering its original roadmap, but I have a feeling critics are pleasantly surprised with the product. The Rotten Watch for Planes is 61%

This poll is no longer available.

Recapping last week:

What a week for the Rotten Watch! Two movies with predictions within a combined nine percent. That’s what I’m talking about. First off, 2 Guns (Predicted: 50% Actual: 58%) came just within the success zone. I suspected this would be a popcorn-y action flick carried by the two stars, who have a way of elevating very below average material. Sean says as much in his review. That Washington and Wahlberg are a strong pairing even saying, “...the duo together are the valuable glue that often holds 2 Guns together at its rough seams.” Like I said last week, I can imagine a scenario where this becomes standard Saturday evening basic cable rerun watching for the Dougster.

Meanwhile, Smurfs 2 (Predicted: 13% Actual: 12%) sucked as expected. Not much else to say here about these kinds of pieces of trash. They’re made for kids and the intellectually deficient. (That’s the demo written up in the studio notes.). But a terrible movie made for a great prediction. There’s a chance this one ends up right on the money with a few more reviews.

Next time around, This Rotten Week takes a little vacation. The Rotten family and I are heading out of town for a few weeks and I’ll be taking a two week break from the column. There is an outside chance I will be able to post some predictions (we will have limited access to Internet), but if not assume all of my guesses would have been directly on the money. See you in a few and may all your movie watching be Tomato-worthy!

There are just a little over three weeks left until Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium transports theatergoers to the luxurious pie-shaped space station in the sky. But don’t take that to mean Blomkamp has just been sitting back in anticipation, fielding questions from journalists; he’s hard at work on his next few projects. And how do I know that? Well, from a journalist. Wired’s Mark Yarm recently wrote a profile on the South African director, which also gave us the image seen above, not all that different from the other promo stills we’ve seen of Matt Damon holding a gun. Far more interesting was the article, which covered his political message (or lack thereof) with Elysium, a District 10 update, and his original casting choice for Damon’s Max De Costa character: 8 Mile actor and rap superstar Eminem.

Initially intending the $100 million action flick to be similar to his surprise 2009 Best Picture nominee District 9 as far as a mid-to-low budget and little star presence, Blomkamp asked Em if he would be interested in the part. Oddly enough, it could have happened if Blomkamp had been willing to set the film’s production in Detroit, Eminem's hometown. But that didn't happen, and one snap back to reality later, Blomkamp realized he might need a bigger name, and Damon stepped up to the exoskeleton plate. Before Eminem, the director also tried to get fellow South African native Ninja of the duo Die Antwoord to play the lead, but Ninja opted out due to the high-profile nature of the film and the risks attached. However, both members of Die Antwoord will be staring in Blomkamp’s next project, the sci-fi comedy Chappie.

We’ll get to Chappie soon, but Blomkamp’s District 10 tidbit is more important. He and co-writer Terri Tatchell have written an 18-page treatment for it, which he says is “really fucking cool,” though he shared no details, only mentioning that he isn’t yet committed to the project. As long as they don’t let anyone else do it in the meantime, I’m all right with that.

Before any of that though, he’s definitely going back to the low-budget side of things with Chappie, which will star Blomkamp’s go-to star Sharlto Copley as a sentient droid. It was described by the director as “fairly touching…But you know, fraught with gunfire.” He says the smaller scale is “project-specific, not part of an overall strategy.”

Yet Blomkamp mentions another cheaper project he’s developing called Mild Oats, which he says is “somewhere between John Waters and Jackass.” In fact, he showed off a prop to Yarm, who described it as “a 3-foot-tall, photo-realistic silicone puppet rocking a mullet and jailhouse tattoos. The deranged redneck stands completely naked, revealing six nipples and a prodigious, uncircumcised penis. The character’s name, Marvin, is inked on said organ in gothic lettering.” I already cannot wait to see this movie. Don’t look for any hidden meaning there.

But what about the meaning behind his upcoming movie? “Elysium doesn’t have a message either,” he says, in response to Yarm’s opinion that Michael Bay films are without messages. Regardless of what he's putting in front of audiences, he doesn’t want to be “the political filmmaker.” I’m pretty sure Marvin would knock that stereotype right out.

Elysium hits theaters and IMAX theaters on August 9. Check out the trailer below, only picture Eminem this time.

Neill Blomkamp's Elysium has promise to be one of the biggest sci-fi adventures of the summer. The South African writer/director blew us all away with his 2009 debut, the Academy Award nominated District 9, and it appears that he has actually upped the ante for his sophomore effort. Not only does the movie feature big name stars like Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, the story itself plays out on an epic scale, set not only on a future Earth much different than are own, but also on a gigantic space station floating amongst the stars. It's a film that will likely demand to be seen on the biggest screen possible, and this August IMAX will be delivering that very option.

The theater brand has officially announced on their homepage that when Elysium arrives in theaters on August 9th, it will also be showing in IMAX theaters around the country. According to the blurb that accompanied the announcement, the movie wasn't filmed in the expanded format - like Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises - but has been digitally re-mastered with the company's IMAX DMR® (Digital Re-mastering) technology to match the normal IMAX Experience.

In the film, which was both written and directed by Blomkamp, Damon stars as a character named Max De Costa, a reformed former criminal living on an Earth that has been overrun by poverty and disease. Most of society's ills can be traced to the fact that all of the wealthy people on the planet have moved to a space station called Elysium, a place that is completely free from violence, illness and all of the other problems that plague those who still live on the planet's surface. One day at work Max is involved in an industrial accident that leaves him poisoned and only a few days away from death. With no other option, the hero calls on his old criminal associates so that he can try and find a way to get to Elysium, and not only save his own life, but potentially the lives of everyone on Earth. You can watch the most recent trailer below.

Audiences can currently see Zack Snyder's Man of Steel in IMAX theaters everywhere, but this weekend will see Guillermo del Toro's giant monsters vs. giant robots take over the big screens when Pacific Rim arrives. David Twohy's long-awaited Riddick is also set to be released in the format when it comes out in early September, and both Nolan and Michael Bay have announced that they will be filming their next projects, Interstellar and Transformers 4, respectively, partially using IMAX cameras.

Imagine a future where mankind has developed the technology to cure all disease. Imagine a future where war is a distant memory and poverty a distant concept. In Neil Blomkamp's upcoming science fiction epic Elysium this future is real…well, for the privileged anyway. Set in 2154, this action adventure starring Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, and Sharlto Copley plays out in a world where the wealthy, beautiful and privileged have moved away from the pit mankind has made of Earth and into a utopia within a manmade space station that looks down on the ruined planet. This is where everything is perfect for those who can afford it. Then there's the poor bastards that can't.

Down on Earth, Max De Costa (Damon) is a former thief trying to go legit with a blue-collar job at a robotics plant. But when a horrific accident on the job leaves him with only days to live, he comes up with a radical plan to save his own life, a plan so radical it could change the world as he knows it. A cure for his terminal illness exists on Elysium. And to get it he's going to have to break in and take it. One of his co-workers gives Max a fighting chance by merging his fast-failing flesh with robotics, making him more than a man, a cyborg.

Jodie Foster plays Secretary Rhodes, who oversees Elysium. When word of rogue transports trying to breach their heavenly space station reaches her, she sees it as a threat to the entire divided class system Elysium represents. And so a war begins.

Previous trailers for the film have teased the concept of class warfare, but this is the first that has satisfyingly summarized the plot. But to be perfectly honest, Blomkamp as writer and director was enough to count this on our summer must-see list. The South African director broke on to the international film scene in a major way with his first feature District 9 back in 2009.

The sci-fi drama was not only praised by critics for its keen storytelling and thought-provoking criticism of racism and xenophobia, but also embraced by audiences worldwide, pulling in an astounding $210 million at the box office. It launched South African actor Sharlto Copley, who has since landed roles in such noteworthy productions as Spike Lee's Oldboy and the Angelina Jolie vehicle Maleficent. Plus, the film went on to earn four Academy Award nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Achievement in Visual Effects, and and Best Motion Picture of the Year! So, yeah, seeing Blomkamp's follow-up is a no-brainer.

Of course with stars like Damon, Copley, and Foster, the cast is another great reason to look ahead to Elysium. But after a slate of gleefully mindless summer films (which we loved, make no mistake), we're ready for a summer spectacle that has a bit more to chew on. With its in-your-face themes of privilege and health care only for the wealthy, Elysium (sadly) could not be better timed.

Elysium opens August 9th.

If you liked the teaser trailer that was released back in April for writer/director Neill Blomkamp's Elysium, I have some very good news. Not only has it been revealed that we will be getting a second preview of the movie tomorrow - likely with a good amount of new footage - today the Yahoo Movies! Twitter feed has debuted a brand new still from the movie, featuring a clearly distraught Matt Damon wearing his funky exoskeleton.

If you've been paying attention to the details, the logo to the left should look familiar. If it does, it's because we've actually been talking about Armadyne since San Diego Comic Con 2011. At the time Sony had launched a viral website for the movie at Armadyne.net, advertising the company that made many of the luxury technologies featured in the world of the film. Even though it's a made up company, we do know that Elysium will feature some real brands - like Kawasaki - but that's really all part of the writer/director using product placement to his advantage.

The movie stars Damon as Max, a former criminal who lives on the surface of a future Earth where the rich have all moved to a space station in the sky called Elysium. While the 1% leaves a completely peaceful existence free of all violence and disease, the poor and middle classes still living on the planet struggle to survive. Things get bad for Max when an on-the-job accident leaves him with only a few days to live, and he realizes that the only way he can survive is by getting to the space station. Returning to some of his friends from his previous life, he is equipped with an exoskeleton that gives him extreme strength and goes on a mission not just to save himself, but the whole world. Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, and William Fichtner co-star in the movie, which will be in theaters on August 9th.

Class warfare. It's a phrase that gets bandied about in politics and headlines, but it's also become a recurring theme in contemporary cinema. Last summer The Dark Knight Rises tackled the topic Tale of Two Cities-style. Every bit of marketing from Bong Joon-ho's upcoming sci-fi thriller Snowpiercer showcases the theme of haves versus have-nots. And writer-director Neill Blomkamp, who memorably took on this issue with the inventive District 9, is back with a dystopian drama that has Matt Damon leading the charge for the disenfranchised.

Set in 2159, Elysium is named for a perfect man-made paradise that floats above the ruins of Earth. People still live on Earth's surface, but these are the unlucky forced to exist in an overpopulated, impoverished hell hole overrun by crime and chaos. The literally high and mighty people of Elysium have turned their backs on the people below, enforcing harsh immigration laws to keep those in need from infringing on their luxurious lifestyles. But one man (Damon) is setting out to break into this sky-high community so he can use their top-of-art tech to save his own life from a vile poison. But his actions could change everything.

The film's first trailer had us clamoring for more, and the new TV spot above (courtesy of The Film Stage) offers us a look at the lavish Elysium as well as the ravaged Earth. Plus, there glimpses of some jaw-dropping special effects, spectacular action, and a tantalizing tease of the war brewing between Damon's machine-enhanced man of the people and Jodie Foster's cold-hearted space station leader.

Elysium is coming August 9th.

This Friday, Tom Cruise faces the challenges of living on an Earth almost completely abandoned by humanity in Oblivion. In June's After Earth, Will and Jaden Smith play a father-son pair who crash land on Earth, thousands of years after humans have left it. Next year Russell Crowe stars in Darren Aronofsky's retelling of the Noah's Ark tale-- the original disaster movie.

Noticing a trend here? Hollywood studios have always been fascinated by destroying the world, but in the next year or so they're going into overdrive, rolling out a solid dozen films that meet the Earth in some state of massive destruction. Blame the now-passe Mayan Apocalypse, blame all the very real things that seem to be threatening our existence, or just blame your usual Hollywood greed-- we're about to see the world fall apart onscreen over and over again, and to be honest, it's already getting confusing.

If you've been mixing up Oblivion and Elysium or can't remember if it's The World's End or This Is The End that stars Simon Pegg, we've got you covered. Using the patent-pending Emmerich Scale (named, of course, for the godfather of apocalypse movies, Roland Emmerich), we've ranked the upcoming world-destroying movies on a scale of 1-- White House Intact-- to 5-- White House in smithereens. Pick your apocalypse setting below.

After Earth

It's right there in the title: in M. Night Shyamalan's vision of the future, all the planet has left is Will Smith and Jaden Smith, and even they've crash-landed on their way somewhere else. The planet isn't dead entirely, but it's so overrun with new mutants and other terrifying obstacles that it may as well be as far as humanity's concerned. If it's total global change you're looking for, Shyamalan is the guy to bring it.

Oblivion

Oblivion still scores a solid 5 on the Emmerich scale, but it's a hair below After Earth because-- possible spoiler?-- some humans are hanging in there on the planet, led by Morgan Freeman and his badass steampunk goggles. But unlike the lush jungles of After Earth the world of Oblivion is mostly deserts and craggy mountains, so this is damn near a toss-up.

Noah

Why venture into the future for your cataclysmic destruction of humanity when the grandaddy of them all is right there in the past? Darren Aronofsky will destroy the world Biblical style with this new take on Noah's Ark that promises to be even darker and grittier… as if the tale of God destroying the world wasn't dark enough already. We don't know exactly how much destruction we'll see, but given that the waters eventually recede and Noah and his family are fruitful and multiply into, y'know, the entire human race, the destruction at least isn't permanent.

The Host

This recent release might have looked like another standard Stephenie Meyer love triangle, but it was secretly a pretty dark vision of the future, in which aliens have taken over the bodies of nearly very human, and have transformed the landscape into generic grocery stores where everything is free, or gleaming office buildings that are so perfect they must be… alien. The planet is still relatively intact (and probably in better hands with these peaceful aliens than with warring humans), but humanity is gone to the point that this easily merits a 4 on the scale.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes had one of the ballsiest endings in recent memory, in which nearly all of humanity was completely wiped out… but in the closing credits. As an afterthought! Given that a handful of humans have been cast we know that not everyone has been wiped out, but of course, given what Charlton Heston finds at the end of Planet of the Apes… well, signs aren't good for humanity.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Humans are hanging on to the planet in this sequel, but they're not doing a very good job of it, forcing kids to fight each other to the death and allowing Donald Sutherland, in spectacular creepy mode, to rule them all. Fans of the books also know that they've essentially given up the entire East Coast to a nuclear explosion way back in the day; Roland Emmerich would appreciate that destruction of New York and Washington D.C., though, which earns them a high 3 on the scale.

This Is The End

Everyone behind This Is The End is being very cagey about what kind of destruction we're in for, but everything we've seen-- celebrities sucked into holes in the earth, the Hollywood Hills on fire-- suggests something serious. At the same time, this is a comedy, and while some of the big names at the center of the film may die off, we're not expecting a total extinction level event. After all, what's funnier-- a bunch of actors freaking out over the actual apocalypse, or freaking out over something that's not that bad after all?

Elysium

We keep having to remind ourselves that Neill Blomkamp's next film doesn't involve aliens, since District 9 made such a strong impression. And despite the fact that rich people are now living in a spaceship and life back on Earth has gotten pretty dismal, life is still at least intact on our planet, which is more than we can say for most of these movies. Although given the fact that Matt Damon is determined to upset the social order, we might not expect that to last for too long.

Pacific Rim

This vision of the future doesn't look much like ours, given that people are spending their time building giant robots that are used to fight giant sea monsters. But all things considered, humanity is hanging on pretty well-- if a Charlie Day's hipster scientist is still making it, then we're all gonna make it after all.

The World's End

Sure, it sounds like it's right there in the title, but Edgar Wright, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg promise to be a bit more cagey with their third film together. The World's End is technically a pub at the tail end of a pub crawl embarked on by a bunch of guys way too old for pub crawls. But will it mean the actual apocalypse? Nothing at all? Something in-between? This is one upcoming movie even the trust Emmerich scale can't figure out.

It says a lot about how incredible District 9 was that we're as excited as we are for writer/director Neill Blomkamp's Elysium. The young filmmaker's debut feature was an absolutely stunning mix of blockbuster action, brilliant visual effects, and impressive political parable that launched him on to just about everybody's "must watch filmmakers" lists. And judging from his sophomore effort's first theatrical trailer, which has debuted over at Yahoo!, he aims to live up to his promise in spectacular fashion.

Based on an original screenplay by Blomkamp, Elysium stars Matt Damon as Max DeCosta, a former felon living in a world heavily divided by class. While he lives on the Earth's surface with all of the other poor of the world, the richest and most powerful people of the world have shipped off to a space station known as Elysium, a perfect paradise completely devoid of all disease, pain, struggle and suffering. When Max suffers an accident, however, he learns that he has only five days left to live - and the only way that he can cure himself is to reach the space station. In a race against time, he is equipped with an exoskeleton that will allow him to maintain his strength while fighting against the forces that try to stop him from reaching the stars. The film co-stars Jodie Foster (as the head of the space station), Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, and William Fichtner, and will be in theaters on August 9th.

Want to find out more about the movie? Head over here to read our description of 10 minutes of footage revealed yesterday during a special presentation, and stay tuned for our conversation with Blomkamp, Copley and producer Simon Kinberg. And ead to the comments below and tell us what you think of the new trailer!

It was five years ago that writer/director Neill Blomkamp first blew us all away with his debut film District 9. Using the science-fiction genre to explore political themes and important issues, the film was a monumental success, both critically and with audiences, eventually going on to earn a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards. We’ve waited a long time to see how the talented filmmaker would follow up such an impressive debut, and today we got to see an exciting and promising preview.

Earlier this afternoon, Blomkamp, star Sharlto Copley, and producer Simon Kinberg (with Matt Damon attending via satellite from Germany) came together at the Arclight Hollywood theater in Los Angeles, California to present a crowd of both fans and journalists with the first look at Elysium, the new sci-fi blockbuster that will be in theaters this August. In addition to showing off the debut theatrical trailer, which will be online tomorrow, the group presented 10 minutes of exclusive footage from the film that, sadly, won’t be available online… but allow me to paint the picture…

After a quick array of clips and title cards establishing the premise of the future world the movie exists in – which has the population of Earth divided into two classes, the poor living on the surface and the rich occupying a lush space station known as Elysium – the first extended footage showed off a team of refugees trying to pilot a beaten up spaceship away from the land of the have-nots to the land of the haves, only to be spotted by the security team at Elysium, including Jodie Foster’s character, Secretary Rhodes. The crew in space alerts a team on the surface, and we see Copley’s character Kruger, step out of a grounded ship, pull out a gigantic missile launcher, and blast the refugees in space to smithereens.

From there we are introduced to Matt Damon as Max DeCosta, who is waiting on line for something when he is identified by a droid that is doing a security check for contraband. Revealed as a former felon, Max is singled out and asked what he has in his bag – to which the shaved-head character replies “hair products.” Obviously lacking a sense of humor, the droid tells Max that he must report to his parole officer before knocking him to the ground. While obviously an abbreviated look, the footage overall delivered a solid sense of Damon’s character, particularly his sense of humor. In another scene we get to see him interacting with his parole officer – who is reminiscent of Johnny Cab from the original Total Recall - where he is shown to be a total smartass, imitating the robot’s voice and mocking him. Hopefully it will be trait that continues even after the plot starts getting more serious.

In the next scene we see Max in a hospital (presumably treating injuries sustained in his altercation with the robot). A nurse, played by Alice Braga, arrives from behind a green curtain and it’s established that Max knows her well, though he hasn’t seen her for a while as she has been away. While bandaging his broken wrist, Braga’s character reveals that Max used to be a car thief, though he claims to have left that life behind. While not an incredibly detailed scene, it does give us a connection between the protagonist and another character, while also delivering some backstory and softly-laid exposition.

From there Max goes to work at what looks like a droid factory, where he has yet another confrontation – this time with his boss who sees his injury and tells him to go home. Desperate to stay on and work, Max fights so that he can stay, but his boss docks him for a half day. While on the line, Max runs into trouble with a door that gets jammed. Yelled at for holding up the line, Max is forced to enter the room he is trying to seal, and winds up getting stuck and presumably exposed to a great deal of toxins. The door opens, a droid comes out and drops some pills, and we learn that our desperate hero has only five days to live. The scene is cut down so that we don’t see what happens in between the door shutting and reopening, just Max screaming for help before cutting to black. What happens to him inside is definitely an interesting mystery.

And thus the plot is put in motion: in order to cure himself, Max must get to Elysium, where technology exists that has eradicated all disease and could save his life. To do so, the protagonist visits a group of criminals who tell him that he needs to get access to a data chip that is located on the ear of a powerful executive named John Carlyle (William Fichtner) and download the information within. Max is outfitted with an exoskeleton – after some painful surgery – that will give him the strength to fight off a droid and the heist is set in motion. The hero and his team shoot Carlyle’s ship out of the sky, have a gun battle with some security droids, and get to the chip.

With District 9, Blomkamp set the bar incredibly high both in terms of world building and visual effects, but just from what we got to see today his sophomore efforts definitely appears to be up to snuff. There’s a tremendous, real-looking dichotomy that exists between Elysium and the Earth’s surface, and as great as it is to see how the worlds are separately, it’s even more impressive to see them intertwined, such as the look of the shiny droids and the comparison between Carlyle’s ship and the ones used by both the refugees at the beginning and by Max and his team. What’s more, all of the digital elements looked seamless, from the environments to equipment – particularly a gun used by Max that fires bullets that cause concussive blasts that tear droids to pieces.

And that’s not all the Elysium goodness we have for you. Following the screening Blomkamp, Copley, and Kinberg were kind enough to spend time talking to the press about the new film, which we’ll have for you tomorrow when the first theatrical trailer arrives online.

Neill Blomkamp's Elysium is one of those films that it feels like we've been waiting for forever. The South African filmmaker's follow-up to his phenomenal 2009 hit District 9, the project has been in development since summer 2010 and geared up pre-production in January 2011, but we are still waiting for the movie to actually come out. We still have a very long wait ahead of us, with Columbia Pictures not set to release the sci-fi thriller until August of next year, at least today we get to see a bit more.

While we actually already have a good look at Matt Damon's character in the movie, an image of him arriving a while back, today Sony has sent out a brand spanking new one that not only gives us a new angle on the actor, but also lets us know that some of our modern brands will still be around in the very distant dystopian future. Check it below and click the image to see it in high-res.

With this revelation, today might be a good day to invest in Kawasaki. They must be doing something very right if they are still making product in 2159.

Written and directed by Blomkamp, Elysium is set in a future where society has been split in two, the wealthiest of the wealthy all moving to a beautiful space station while the middle and lower classes are left to live on the dying Earth. Damon plays a man named Max who takes on a mission that could very well bridge the gap and bring equality back to the world. Jodie Foster will play the film's villain, Secretary Rhodes, and the supporting cast includes William Fichtner, Alice Braga, Sharto Copley and Diego Luna. The movie will be in theaters August 9, 2013 and for more info be sure to go to our Blend Film Database.

Two of the biggest sci-fi movies of 2013 are having their release schedules messed with. Sony has decided to make a few adjustments to their calendar next year and have even gone as far as to boot one of their biggest films off of it. The trade has learned that Elysium, the new movie from District 9 director Neill Blomkamp starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, has shifted from March 1, 2013 to August 9, 2013 and have taken RoboCop, which originally had that August 9 the date, and moved it to February 7, 2014.

Box Office Mojo continues the chain by adding that Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers has been moved up from the new RoboCop date to September 27, 2013 and that Pixels, a film based on a short film being produced by Adam Sandler, has been taken off the schedule completely (it was originally supposed to be out May 17th next year).

In its new date Elysium will only find competition in the Jason Sudeikis comedy We're The Millers. Based on an original script by Blomkamp, the film is set in a future where the wealthy of the world have moved to a giant space station, while everyone else has been left to try and survive on the ruined earth. Damon plays Max, a man still living on Earth who works to try and create equilibrium.

As for Robocop, the change is actually very strange. Despite the fact that there are 52 weekends in the year, Sony has moved it to the same weekend as Buena Vista's Need For Speed adaptation, which is likely targeting the exact same demographic. Given how far away we are from 2014 it's entirely possible that things will change at some point, but for now it's a weird choice. The film is a remake of Paul Verhoeven's 1987 film about a cop who is killed on duty and transformed into a litearl crime fighting machine. José Padilha is serving as director and the cast includes Joel Kinnaman, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Jackie Earle Haley, Abbie Cornish and Jay Baruchel.

Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers - a sequel to the hit Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs - will face little demographic competition in its new date, going up against the action thriller Runner, Runner and the Stallone-Schwarzenegger reteam The Tomb. The film brings back stars Bill Hader, Anna Faris and Neil Patrick Harris from the first movie and is being helmed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn.

With all due respect to Total Recall and Looper, which each look fantastic, most of us packed into Hall H for Sony’s panel to get our first official look at Elysium, the anticipated sci-fi thriller from District 9 director Neill Blomkamp. The director is bringing Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, producer Simon Kinberg and what we hope is some groundbreaking footage as the Hall H day comes to a close.

OK, Elysium. What’ve you got for us?

5:50 We're probably starting right away. This Sony panel is moving fast.

5:52 “I actually feel like I belong in [the audience]. … I feel like I’m a fan,” Neill Blomkamp says as soon as he takes the stage. “The idea of launching footage at Comic Con, I feel, is the true honest place. … I’m OK with it.”

5:55 The footage is coming up. Blomkamp says the effects are “incredibly rough” He calls it low-res stuff that gives us a “window” into what we’re going to get. He seems to be making excuses. Let’s see. Here comes the footage.

6:00 He wasn't making excuses. At all. The footage is incredible. We saw almost 7 or 8 minutes of the film, setting up a lot of the movie's plot. As you might already know, our planet (in the future) is polluted beyond repair. The wealthy have moved to a floating space station dubbed Elysium. The effects to create Elysium were the rough elements Blomkamp talked about, but we saw enough to get us excited ... including a shot of people from Earth trying to get to the space station. They are blown out of the sky.

Then we meet Damon's character, a wise-cracking blue-collar worker who interacts with the world for a few minutes of footage. We see how technological our world has become, and how detached humanity now is from the forces that govern it. Then, at work, Damon's character gets infected during a chemical accident. He's told he only has days to live. But he thinks he can get proper treatment ... on Elysium.

There's more to the plot, but I kind of want to stop there. We see brief clips of Foster's character as she sits on Elysium. And District 9 star Sharlto Copley plays a wicked villain tasked with hunting Damon's character, and he looks menacing as hell. But he has a sick sense of humor that makes me think I'm going to love the manic energy he'll bring to the film. Blomkamp's visuals are magnificent. They mix District 9 with Mad Max with The Terminator, but his story finds an emotional hook. It looks incredible.

6:02 "Did you guys like?" Blomkamp asks, to a roar. "Good. I'm glad."

6:05 Comic Con newcomers Matt Damon and Jodie Foster are welcomed to the stage. Both say they would have done anything with Blomkamp following District 9.

6:06 Sharlto Copley is getting a lot of love from the Con crowd. He calls his 2009 appearance in San Diego with D9 "a defining moment" in his career, and he continues to thank the fans. His character, in the trailer, looks like a gonzo killer. HIs villain looks like so much fun. He might steal the show.

6:08 There's a lot of talk about the social issues that are being addressed in the film, with Blomkamp saying it really does deal with the divide between the haves and the have nots. If you saw District 9, you know Blomkamp uses sci-fi to address big issues. This will be more of the same.

6:09 For some reason, there's a steady exodus out of the Hall as Damon and Foster field questions. Don't you people want to hear about the craft of acting?

6:11 Jodie Foster name drops Nell. Three people clap and yell. C'mon, folks. It's a good movie!

6:12 Damon has a great anecdote about how smart Blomkamp is, in case you couldn't figure it out from his intelligent movies.

6:13 Copley is getting so much love from this crowd. He downplays the concept that he's a star ... then says he's working on a picture in London where he gets to be Angelina Jolie's lover. Yeah, dude. That means you are a star.

6:14 Blomkamp says that he relied on a lot of CGI, but as a background, and he hopes it didn't get in the way. He says Foster had to work alongside the most green screen, while the actors had stunt men in rubber suits to play off of in the action scenes. Copley, sensing that the crowd is dying down, welcomes them all back to Comic Con again. This is a strange panel.

6:16 An upbeat fan asks Damon and Foster to compare Blomkamp to the likes of Scorsese and other classic directors. Damon says that he thinks Blomkamp belongs in the same breath as the top directors. Well, of course. He's sitting right next to Damon on the panel!

6:17 Producer Simon Kinsberg says it was important to bring back most of the creative team from D9 because they brought such realism to that first film, and they wanted that feel for Elysium. Blomkamp says they're very skilled at getting the best look for a smaller budget, and the trick is going to tough locations like Mexico City to immerse yourself in complicated situations to capture hostile realism. It shows in the footage.

6:20 Damon says one key sequence was filmed in "the second largest dump in the world," where the majority of the particles in the air were fecal matter. Damon says he and Copley would be covered in black smoot at the end of each shot, realizing they were coated in shit. But Blomkamp would come running up with his gas mask on and say, "I assure you, the footage looks incredibly cool."

6:22 There's another long story about a scene involving a helicopter kicking up dirt, fecal matter and pig piss on Matt Damon. There's far more piss and shit mentions in this panel than I expected.

6:23 But Blomkamp says when he ran up to Damon for these difficult shoots to ask him if he's OK with what they are filming, the actor responded, "I read the script." Total pro.

6:24 Dude asks Damon how preparing for an action movie is different from preparing for a drama. "He does some acting in Elysium!" Blomkamp responds. Hilarious.

6:26 Thanks to an awkward question, Foster admits that Team America is her favorite Matt Damon movie. Damon admits that he has to sign the puppet head all of the time. The guy at the mic persists about Damon working on Team America. He must be stoned. Damon admits he didn't work on Team America, sadly, but he'd love to collaborate with Trey Parker and Matt Stone. "Those guys are geniuses." Most surreal moment of the panel.

Fans clamor to see the sizzle reel again. They can't show it. And the panel's done. That's all for Sony. On with the Con!

Though today is technically just preview night, the action is up and running in San Diego for this year's Comic Con, with movie studios pulling out a lot of stops to impress the hundreds of thousands of fans who gather here each year. We've already given you a look at the flotilla of Batmobiles gathered outside one hotel adjacent to the convention center, but that's all about looking at the past. Want to get a look at another giant exhibit that gives us a glimpse at a very, very secret upcoming movie? Of course you do.

Over at the Hard Rock Hotel, also adjacent to the convention center, a mysterious spaceship seems to have crash landed-- a spaceship with ties to Matt Damon, District 9 director Neill Blomkamp, and their new movie Elysium. Take a look at it below, and note that it's made by luxury car manufacturer Bugatti, of all things.

Elysium will be part of the big panel for upcoming Sony Pictures films on Friday, and Blomkamp will be on hand along with cast members Damon, Jodie Foster and District 9 star Sharlto Copley. We're hoping they'll reveal some footage from the film and a few more details about it, since so far all we know is this brief but very intriguing synopsis:

We'll be on hand at the Elysium panel and also interviewing the cast, so stay tuned for lots, lots more Comic Con coverage for the rest of the week. We're here in San Diego wearing ourselves out so you don't have to!

To see all of our in-depth coverage from San Diego Comic Con click HERE

It's been nearly three years since Neill Blomkamp made his stunning directorial debut with District 9, turning what could have been a ho-hum, low-budget alien invasion movie into a stirring and occasionally heartbreaking action drama, enough to earn itself a Best PIcture nomination and Blomkamp plenty of fans for life. But unlike so many new directors who get shoved into the next big thing the minute their film becomes a hit, Blomkamp took his time picking his next project before finally settling on Elysium, another sci-fi film but this time with stars like Matt Damon, Jodie Foster and William Fichtner leading it. (His District 9 star Sharlto Copley is on board as well, not to worry).

Elysium has been kept under wraps so successfully that I'd honestly forgotten it already went into production, but it's moving fast toward its March 1, 2013 release date, with test screenings already happening. That's how a synopsis for the film made its way to Collider, giving us the first clear sense of the story Elysium will follow. Turn out, the movie might be way more similar to District 9 than you might have thought. Take a look below.

Remembering the alien spacecraft hovering over Johannesburg in District 9, and the sharp division between aliens and humans that served as a metaphor for apartheid, and we seem to be back in very similar thematic territory-- which could wind up being a good thing if Blomkamp also manages to expand on them. Even the thought of Damon in action hero mode has me automatically on board, though, so I'll be anxious to see how Blomkamp's sophomore effort goes come next spring.

We’ve known for quite some time that a fourth Bourne movie is happening, and that Matt Damon isn’t in it. Instead, actor Jeremy Renner (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) will be taking over the franchise in The Bourne Ultimatum as a new protagonist, with series screenwriter Tony Gilroy now also directing. Up until now, however, it has sounded like these changes were all cordial and mutual. Based on some comments Matt Damon made in a GQ cover story, however, that may not entirely be the case.

The trouble stems, apparently, from Damon and Gilroy’s last Bourne collaboration, The Bourne Ultimatum. Damon told GQ that Gilroy’s deal for the film only required him to write one draft of the script, no rewrites, because he was committed to making his directorial debut on Michael Clayton. Damon continued:

The script was thereafter rewritten by George Nolfi and Scott Z. Burns, but Damon said that Gilroy later petitioned the Writers Guild for sole credit on the script. He was denied, so Gilroy shares screenplay credit on the final film with Nolfi and Burns. Apparently, things behind the scenes of the Bourne franchise were a bit rockier than we knew. Damon also explained that the friction began when Paul Greengrass came on as director on the second film, The Bourne Supremacy, with Gilroy and Greengrass’ competing styles jarring against each other. “Tony does all the work before and delivers a finished script. Paul wants the script to be ever-evolving during shooting.”

Damon was quick to attempt to put his comments in perspective, however. In a new interview with THR, Damon explains that he was set on edge when the offices for The Bourne Legacy opened up in Vancouver, right next to his trailer on the set of Neil Blomkamp’s science fiction flick, Elysium. He told THR:

Hopefully this spat between Damon and Gilroy won’t come to blows. I once saw Damon kill a guy with a ballpoint pen (in a movie).

The Bourne Legacy is set to open on August 3rd, 2012. We’ll have to wait until March 1st, 2013 for Elysium.

If you look a few years in to the past, Comic Con 2008 was in full swing and you started to see viral posters for what would soon be the sci-fi powerhouse of District 9. A similar situation is happening right now at SDCC 2011 for D9 director Neill Blomkamp’s next original sci-fi film Elysium. ComingSoon has confirmed that these posters, advertising for a company called Armadyne, do in fact connect with Elysium which is do out March 1, 2013.

Upon investigating the Armadyne.net website, you see a recruiting video from the fictional company advertising jobs for experienced “zero g welders, mega-structure engineers, quantum networkers, zero g coupling experts, and multi-generational planners.” We already know that Blomkamp’s film will be a big movie set 100 years in the future on a distant planet, and that there will be a social allegory involved, much as District 9. What new we can glean from this video is that there will be some sort of large transport vehicle, or at least something that will act as a vehicle. The term quantum is often used when referring to faster-than-light travel so expect whatever ship Armadyne to be building to be hopping between worlds Event Horizon style.

When “mega-structure engineers” are mentioned, the 3D graphic growing on to the screen looks more like a city than a ship, so maybe they’ll be working on something more like the Death Star than a Star Destroyer. What could also be indicated by something this early is that we won’t be hearing about the construction at all in the film, instead the viral campaign will probably take us all the way up until the ship arrives at its destination, and that will presumably be where the film will start. That’s all speculation though.

With nearly two years until the film’s release, there’s still quite a long time for this viral campaign to grow and slowly deliver details about the film. For now, we’ll be keeping an eye on the site which boasts an “APPLY” form that will be coming soon, that will hopefully open up some more details about the available positions.

In the summer of 2009 Neill Blomkamp went from being the unknown South African director who almost got to direct Halo to a genuine phenomenon. His debut feature District 9 was an enormous hit that scored 4 Oscar nominations, of course, but it also felt like the future of sci-fi, a low-budget and ridiculously clever take on the alien invasion genre that proved you only need a smart script and a few great ideas to make sci-fi feel new again. Blomkamp has taken his time choosing his next project, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to hope he'll be revolutionizing the genre again with his next project, Elysium, which finally starts shooting this summer.

Blomkamp has been assembling the cast for months now, with Jodie Foster set to play "a head of state on an alien planet", District 9 Sharlto Copley also playing a major role, and the likes of William Fichtner and Wagner Moura also rounding out the cast. Now Deadline reports that Alice Braga has also joined, though given the secretive nature of the story we of course don't know which role she'll play. Braga and Moura are both Brazilian-born actors, which has me wondering if that will play into the plot somehow, but it seems just as plausible that Blomkamp wants a diverse, international cast. Braga is no stranger to sci-fi, having starred in I Am Legend, Repo Men and Predators all since her breakthrough role in City of God, so even though we have no idea what to expect from Elysium, it seems likely Braga will be on comfortable terrain.

While Drive Angry 3D certainly wasn't the best film ever made, I do wish more people had seen it. Why? Because William Fichtner is amazing. Known to way too many people as "the bank manager from The Dark Knight," Fichtner is one our best character actors and always manages to put on a great performance. It's for that reason that I now hope a lot of people go see Elysium.

Variety reports that Fichtner has joined the cast of Neill Blomkamp's sci-fi follow-up to District 9. Details regarding the story remain thin, but we do know that it is set 100 years in the future future, has a social allegory, and that Syd Mead, designer of Blade Runner, Aliens, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, has been hired for set design. In addition to Fichtner, the cast already includes Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley and Wagner Moura. Production is scheduled to start in July and the film will be released by Sony on March 8, 2013.

Did a movie that already sounds awesome somehow just get awesomer? Yes, yes I think it did.

UPDATE: Deadline is now reporting that Elysium has been picked up by Sony, which also distributed District 9. The story also says that Universal is negotiating to co-finance the film, however, I have learned from the studio that they are not involved.

It doesn't feel like it's been that long since Neill Blomkamp amazed the world with his science-fiction apartheid parable District 9, but the film will be two years old come August. He's been working on his follow-up, Elysium, for some time now, and has already attracted a stellar cast that includes the return of Sharlto Copley as well as Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. The problem? We still really don't know much about it outside of the fact that it will be another entry in the science fiction genre. Today we get a few new details as well as confirmation that it will look incredible.

Deadline has learned that Blomkamp has begun shopping his next film to studios using a storyboarded presentation. According to the report, Elysium will be set 100 years in the future and there's a social allegory to the story, though it's an "unabashedly big movie." The film is also being planned as being rated R, as revealed by the fact that they won't be presenting to Disney as the studio, "won't make R-rated event films."

Even cooler news is that Blomkamp has hired Syd Mead as the film's set designer. While he isn't exactly a household name, Mead is a legend in the sci-fi genre, having done design work for Blade Runner, Aliens, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Now 77 years old, Mead hasn't done much work in the last few years, his last two projects being Mission: Impossible III in 2006 and Mission To Mars in 2000, but was so impressed by District 9 that he decided to pick up the phone.

Much in the same way I feel about Duncan Jones, I'm incredibly excited to see what Blomkamp brings us in the next few years. The science-fiction genre has been so tired in the last few years and it's great to see directors with vision get back into it and shake things up. It's time for the science fiction reawakening.

When Neill Blomkamp made District 9, his star was Sharlto Copley, a man who had never done any acting outside of Alive in Joburg, the short film that inspired the sci-fi feature. For Blomkamp's follow-up, Elysium, however, he's going a different route. In addition to Copley, Matt Damon has been attached to the project, and now Blomkamp has signed Jodie Foster.

Deadline reports that Foster has cast in the film, despite the fact that the project hasn't even been sold to studios yet. Because no details about the movie's plot have been released, it is unknown what kind of character that the actress will be playing, though it is known that Elysium will qualify as science-fiction. Foster's next film, The Beaver, which she both starred in and directed, will be released in April of this year.

As a fan of Jodie Foster's work, it's really great to see her come back. Thanks to all of the Mel Gibson issues, we haven't seen her in a film since 2008's Nim's Island, which is just far too long. She's also set up to co-star alongside John C. Reilly, Christoph Waltz, and Kate Winslet in Roman Polanski's God of Carnage, so it looks like this could be a very authentic comeback and we here at Cinema Blend welcome it.

Even though District 9 snagged him an Oscar nomination and somehow got him on the rumor list for directing The Hobbit, Neill Blomkamp has stayed remarkably under-the-radar since his $30 million directorial debut earned more than $200 million worldwide. Now it's finally time to him to come forward with his next project, and no, it's not the District 9 sequel. According to Deadline Blomkamp and his District 9 star Sharlto Copley are planning another sci-fi feature together, this one called Elysium and set on a distant planet.

Blomkamp is meeting with various studios, and in addition to giving a verbal pitch with his ideas, he's including a graphic novel-- a gambit that helped him get Peter Jackson as a producer on District 9.In addition to courting studios Blomkamp is meeting with people who represent actors, as no one but Copley has been cast yet. And there's no telling if this anything to do with the viral short that Blomkamp directed recently, though given that the short seems to center around an Earth-based company that's genetically engineering mutants, I'd doubt the two are connected.

Sony is still pushing hard for Blomkamp to make a District 9 sequel, and it may still happen, but given that the guy seems to have imagination to spare I'm happy to see him moving forward with something different. And Copley, whose Hollywood career got off to an awkward start with a role in The A-Team, should be glad to get back in business with Blomkamp, who guided him to a phenomenal performance as Wikus van der Merwe in District 9. Hopefully a studio will get on board with Blomkamp's pitch shortly and we'll get a look at this project within the next few years.