South African filmmaker Neill Blomkamp has released the first trailer for an experimental venture he will soon launch called Oats Studios, an incubator for “experimental short films” that will serve as “tests for potential full feature films.”
First announced by the Oscar-nominated writer of District 9 in April, Blomkamp confirmed that the Oats Studios project was progressing earlier this month, tweeting to his followers that he was “trying ideas out,” and “hoping people get behind them.”
The new studio will create sci-fi and monster movies, which will come as no surprise to followers of Blomkamp’s career; the South African adapted his own short film into the hit District 9 in 2009, launching himself as a big-budget blockbuster director with the likes of Elysium and Chappie.
Most recently, his name has been attached to Alien 5, with Sigourney Weaver reportedly on board to return to the franchise that launched her career to play Ellen Ripley again. Despite an initial burst of interest from fans and the film press, Alien and Alien: Covenant director Ridley Scott recently said that no script had yet materialised for the film and that he suspected it was dead in the water.
But Blomkamp does appear to be much further ahead with Oats Studios, with a trailer for Volume 1 released online.
The video showcases the tense action scenes and sci-fi creatures that have come to define his career, opening with a shot of the Eiffel Tower in a world where aliens have colonised the earth and are wiping out mankind.
The trailer shows Dakota Fanning, long-time collaborator Sharlto Copley, and Sigourney Weaver in blink-and-you’ll-miss-them scenes.
The Oats Studios shorts will be sold through the gaming streaming site Steam, though the director tweeted that there is scope for Volume 1 to be uploaded free-of-charge to YouTube.
“The new world altered everyone,” the trailer’s narrator says, though she could be talking about the film industry. “Adapt or die. It was as simple as that.”
