'District 9' shows Jackson's low-budget savvy

SAN DIEGO — In a summer filled with big-budget movies featuring brand names such as "Transformers," "G.I. Joe," "Star Trek" and "Harry Potter," Peter Jackson knew that the low-budget, aliens-on-earth tale "District 9," which he produced, couldn't succeed if it took the same special effects-heavy approach as those films.

Instead of wowing audiences with bombastic moments, the filmmakers settled on a design that emphasizes barbed wire and urban decay.

"It's a strange world where $30 million isn't a lot of money," Jackson said while discussing the movie at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con. "It wasn't a film on anybody's radar."

Making a film that sneaks up on people is not something New Zealander Jackson has done for the past decade. And he knows a few things about big movies after writing and directing the Oscar-winning "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, as well as the 2005 remake of "King Kong."

But "District 9" has more in common with his low-budget, sometimes forgotten splatter films "Bad Taste" (1987) and "Dead Alive" (1992) rather than those big studio projects. "District 9" was made without a single recognizable star or studio financing, and it contains graphic violence, alien splatter and goo that, along with strong language, earned it an R rating from the MPAA.

The small-budget film rose from the ashes of a scrapped, big-budget project. Neill Blomkamp had been tapped to direct a Jackson-produced, $120 million adaptation of the ultra-popular video game "Halo." It was the chance of a lifetime for the young South African filmmaker. And when studio politics killed the film, it was devastating for all involved. But Blomkamp's next big chance came quickly — thanks to Jackson.

"We thought, 'Let's make a film with Neill. There's no reason why ('Halo') falling over has to mean that we don't get to make a film. Let's just do an original movie, something low-budget that we can finance independently so we don't have to go through the studio experience that we just had," Jackson said. "And that's how 'District 9' was born."

Blomkamp already had a documentary-style, six-minute short called "Alive in Joburg" (which can be found on YouTube and other sites). The short featured extraterrestrials living in ghetto poverty in Johannesburg, South Africa, and feeling the effects of xenophobia. No aliens obliterating the White House here.

"Aliens arriving on Earth isn't particularly unique, " Blomkamp said. "But the idea of science fiction in a slightly unique setting was really appealing to me."