I’m pretty sure District 9 would be on many people’s lists of things they would like to unwrap come Christmas morning, but alas, I have bad news for you. Perhaps missing an opportunity, the single disk and special double disk edition, as well as the Hi-Def Blu-Ray edition will hit the shelves on December the 29th, just in time for New Years.
The good news though is that the list of special features has been revealed, and all I can say is that your going to love them! Thanks to the U.K. online store Play.com a full list of extras have been listed.
Director’s Commentary – now I’m not a huge fan of commentaries but this one will be something special! The opportunity to hear Blomkamp and Jackson talk about their inspiration for the film is to good to miss. Hopefully they will reveal details of the failed Halo movie as well, with the money for that project being poured into this one.
MovieIQ – This is Sony’s latest Blu-ray feature that utilises the internet connection of you Blu-ray player and provides you with updated facts, figures and date on the movie, cast and crew. It sounds like a pretty cool feature, and hopefully Sony will utilise it to maximum effect.
Cinechat – The second Sony internet enabled feature is cinechat, a tool that will allow you to chat with people you know while watching the film together. I’m not quite as excited by this feature as it has been around for years! It’s called inviting your friends round for movie night!
There will also be several featurettes on the design and concept of District 9 including Wikus’s transformation from alien immigration officer to prawn, and also a feature on the weaponry used in the film. As you can see from our interview, Greg Broadmore was great, and hopefully he will pop up in the weaponry featurettes.
Here is the list of special featurettes:
Joburg From Above: Satellite and Schematics of the World of District 9 – Interactive Map
The Alien Agenda: A Filmmaker’s Log Three-Part Documentary
Koobus Big Gun
The Alien Agenda: A Filmmaker’s Log – Chapter 3: Refining District 9 Metamorphosis: The Transformation of Wikus
Innovation: Acting and Improvisation
Conception and Design: Creating the World of District 9
Alien Generation: Visual Effects
I would have liked to have seen some of the short films created by Blomkamp that inspired the film, such as the excellent “Alive in Joburg“, but I’m sure with the inclusion of MovieIQ they will be able to add things like this that they may have forgotten in the initial release.
So what do you think? Is are the special features worthy of this great film? The signs look very good to me, but let us know what you think below.