Hey guys! Horrorella here...

It looks like Sony is gearing up to finance Neill Blomkamp's next project. The new film from the director of DISTRICT 9 and ELYSIUM is called CHAPPIE, and will be based on Blomkamp's short film TETRA VAAL.

From the press release:

Chappie tells the story of a robot imbued with artificial intelligence who is stolen by two local gangsters who want to use him for their own nefarious purposes. The film will star Sharlto Copley as the voice of Chappie, with Ninja and Yolandi Visser, voices of the South African Zef counter-culture movement and members of rap-rave duo Die Antwoord, as the two gangsters.

While I thought that ELYSIUM fell a bit short of the bar that Blomkamp set for himself with the release of DISTRICT 9, he remains a director that I look forward to watching develop. He has a great mind for science fiction, and I am excited to seeing what other stories he can tell. While we don't know a whole lot about CHAPPIE at this moment, from the brief description above, I have hopes that it will lock back onto the characterization and emotional resonance that DISTRICT 9 did so well, but that was lacking in his latest effort. Plus, I LOVE the look of Blomkamp's robots.

Blomkamp will direct the film from a script that he co-wrote with Terri Tatchell. Shooting will begin later this fall.

What do you guys think?

Follow me on Twitter