Neill Blomkamp burst on the scene in a big way when he released DISTRICT 9 back in 2009, a movie that eventually earned four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Since then people have expected great sci-fi outings from him (including a scrapped ALIEN 5), and ELYSIUM and CHAPPIE didn’t exactly hit those heights. But it seems the director is going back to his roots with OATS VOLUME 1, a series of “experimental” shorts involving an alien invasion. The first teaser for the series was put out by Blomkamp on Instagram, teasing a world taken over by lizard aliens.
Since DISTRICT Blomkamp has struggled to receive the same kind of praise with his other feature films, with ELYSIUM getting good box office numbers ($286 million global) and decent reviews, but with CHAPPIE being met with a critical lashing and middling numbers ($102 million). I don’t know what to expect from OATS, a mysterious new entry in Blomkamp’s alien invasion canon, but doing it in a series of shorts could be as unique an experience as DISTRICT, but without the constraints of studio pressure. I the fact Blomkamp places all his movies in grounded settings, and OATS looks like it could have this guerilla-style minimalism to it that could make it feel incredibly realistic. We will know more about this project in the future, but now all we can do is wonder how these chameleons gained access to weapons.
OATS VOLUME 1 will be available to stream "soon."