In the background of many scenes, you will see mutilated animal carcasses, which were actually real in the majority of these scenes. Filming often took place in real slums and authentic local shacks. In this article, you will encounter more trivia and facts regarding District 9.
In addition to the authentic props used for the making of the movie, only one shack was created for the movie was the one that housed Christopher Johnson.
An apt foreshadowing of events to come in the movie, the tagline of the film is ‘You are not welcome here.’
The cameras used in the filming of ‘District 9’ needed to accommodate the amount of hand-held shooting needed for the movie, so producers and crew decided to use the digital Red One camera. In the process of production, cinematographer Trent Opaloch used nine digital Red Ones belonging to Peter Jackson for the majority of filming. Other cameras used include Sony EX1 and EX3s.
Neill Blomkamp was originally supposed to direct the feature film based on the video game series called ‘Halo’, but this deal fell through and producer Peter Jackson offered Blomkamp $30 million to make a movie on whatever he wanted. ‘District 9’ was his choice.
While you are probably not familiar with the Afrikaan way of cussing, several words are scattered throughout the film, including slang terms for various body parts.
The film was given an R rating for scenes that included “bloody violence” and pervasive language.
Already, the film has won a collection of awards, including: the LAFCA Award Best Production Design and the New Generation Award (Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards), Austin Film Critics Award for Best First Film (Austin Film Critics Association), and the BSFC Award Best for New Filmmaker (Boston Society of Film Critics Awards).
In the filming of the movie, an assortment of authentic weapons used in South Africa was used during production. A few include the NTW-20 20mm anti-materiel rifle, white painted CR-21 bullpup assault rifles and a Neopup PAW-20 hand-held grenade launcher.
When the movie opened on August 14, 2009 in the United States and Canada, moviegoers crowded into 3,049 theaters, causing the film to claim the top ranking at the weekend box office with an opening gross of $37,354,308.
The film has been nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of Best Screenplay for a Motion Picture.
The viral marketing campaign for ‘District 9’ started in 2008 at the San Diego Comic-Con with the theatrical trailer appearing in July of 2009.
Despite a relatively unknown cast and low-budget production, ‘District 9’ has earned around $204,570,836 in gross revenue.
During the filming of the movie, the location of Chiawelo, Soweto was undergoing violent unrest as South African townships were experiencing conflict between native South Africans and Africans born in other countries.