Neill Blomkamp explains why he is not interested in directing Star Trek 3

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Neill Blomkamp just a few weeks ago gave the no-go for his potential involvement as director for an upcoming STAR WARS movie. With J.J. Abrams heavily involved with STAR WARS: EPISODE VII, there is an opening for someone to helm the sequel to STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS. Blomkamp’s obvious political and societal undertones in his films would be a welcome addition to the newly rebooted world of STAR TREK. Alas, Blomkamp is not interested in STAR TREK directing, but he has a reason why:

“Dude, I used to be a ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ fan. Like, big time… But no, I probably wouldn’t do that. I don’t know if me getting involved with a franchise is the best thing for me. When studios smell franchises, they smell money. And they’ll try to do what they can to the franchise to make it make the most money it can make, and a lot of those interesting ideas kind of fall by the side of the road. So… Do I like ‘Star Trek’ on its own without the politics of making it? Yes, absolutely. But do I think that you could make it in the way that I would want to make it? Probably not, which makes me not want to make it.”

I can understand his hesitancy for becoming too ingrained in a major franchise which may explain why he never got that HALO movie off the ground. Does this mean we will never see him partake in a major studio series of films? Probably.

But, as long as he is willing to create original films, I cannot argue with him not wanting to make sequels or series. Even DISTRICT 10 seems a stretch at this point. Hopefully ELYSIUM is just another film in a long trend of original ideas from the South African filmmaker.