District 9 is an upcoming science fiction film produced by Peter Jackson, set for an August 14th release date and will be distributed by Sony’s Tristar Pictures. It takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa; aliens made first contact with Earth twenty-eight years prior while humanity waited for the hostile attack or for giant advances in technology, though neither came. Instead, the aliens that arrived were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa’s District 9 as the world’s nations argued over what to do with them. Patience over the alien situation ran out and control over them was contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens’ welfare.
MNU stands to receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens’ advanced weaponry work, but have failed because it requires alien DNA. Tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when an MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA. Wikus quickly becomes the most hunted man in the world, as well as the most valuable, for he is the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology. Van der Merwe becomes ostracized and friendless and hides amongst the creatures locked within District 9.
