Top 25 Most Anticipated Studio Films of 2015: #2. Neill Blomkamp’s Chappie

Chappie

Director: Neill Blomkamp // Writers: Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell

After the unprecedented success of his debut, District 9 (2009), South African director Neill Blomkamp thankfully avoided stepping right into a sequel, instead making his next film, Elysium (2013). Even though it was another grunge dystopia and was less well received, Blomkamp proves to be an innovative genre filmmaker, one of few filmmakers who can do a lot with a small budget and still retain an authorial voice when cast into the studio system. We have high hopes for his latest, which sounds to be a different angle from the filmmaker still working within preferred parameters. Based on his own 2006 short film, Blomkamp’s latest is Chappie, the tale of a robot kidnapped by two criminals and growing up under these strange familial circumstances as he grows into a prodigy. Blomkamp famously cast the members of provocative South African rap-rave group Die Antwoord, but we’re excited to see his regular collaborator Sharlto Copley will be voicing the robot, while sci-fi icons Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver round out the cast. Blomkamp cites Aliens (1986) as his favorite film but we’re hoping Weaver is on board for more than a mere vanity cameo.

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver, Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley,  Yo-Landi Visser

Producer: Simon Kinberg (Elysium)

U.S. Distributor: Columbia Pictures

Release Date: The film is set for theatrical release on March 6, 2015.

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