On Thursday, a live-action trailer for the action RPG Anthem will be released. After some speculation regarding the director, District-9 creator Neill Blomkamp is confirmed to be in charge.
Update 12.2. 15:20: Bioware has now released a teaser for the live-action trailer and confirmed that Neil Blomkamp is involved as the director. A teaser shows the first scenes:
When will the live-action trailer be released? On Twitter, the developers announced the full trailer for Thursday, February 14. You can watch the premiere on Youtube.
What happened? A message from director Neill Blomkamp appeared on Twitter: “I am working on something new. I’m looking forward to sharing more about it soon.”
Why could this be related to Anthem? The image in the message shows a Javelin from Anthem. Furthermore, Blomkamp uses the hashtag #anthemgame in the message.
Who is Neill Blomkamp? Blomkamp is a filmmaker from Johannesburg, South Africa, known for several Hollywood films:
- District 9
- Elysium
- Chappie
He is currently working on a sequel to the Robocop film series from the 1980s. Additionally, he wanted to direct a sequel to the Alien films and connect his film directly to Aliens: The Return. However, since director Ridley Scott made his prequel films Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, Blomkamp’s project has been put on hold.
What is coming our way?
What could it be? Everything currently suggests that it will be a live-action trailer for the game. A short film is also possible. Blomkamp is known for smaller projects.
Bioware and Electronic Arts stated, that Anthem is intended to be a kind of Netflix for games. They plan to continuously provide new content. It is also conceivable that Neill Blomkamp might develop a questline for a new story in the game instead of making a film or trailer.
A film project could also be possible. Blomkamp was involved in a film adaptation of the Halo franchise for a time and produced a multi-part short film Halo: Landfall for the release of Halo 3.
Could there also be a movie about Anthem? Bioware has invested a lot of time and effort to develop a deep lore for the online shooter. So there is indeed story potential.
An action story about a group of fighters in their Javelin suits fighting against the Dominion and the Scars would certainly be interesting material for Hollywood.
However, everything indicates that it is a smaller project, which is why a live-action trailer is more likely.
How are Anthem fans reacting? Neill Blomkamp’s Twitter post has, of course, been widely discussed. Many find a live-action trailer for Anthem very interesting. Most are also satisfied with Blomkamp as the director – even if he could not build on his success from District 9 with his recent films.
