Almost two years ago, Neill Blomkamp, writer and director of viral-friendly District 9, made a short film that showed up in the iPad version of a Wired Magazine issue. There was a lot of speculation on what that video was for, but we haven’t heard anything from it since. Now we might have a possible sequel video. Check it out after the break.
The original video featured two young guys driving up to a dead animal one of them found earlier that was just as disgusting as it was unidentifiable. This creature had a stamp with “18.12” (the magazine’s issue number) and “AGM Heartland”. /Film had found out that AGM Heartland had been trademarked for:
Entertainment services by way of an online website with video, audio and textual content and images featuring characters and storylines about a fictional genetic engineering company that produces genetically engineered and altered organisms
The ending shot on the factory in the distance made it clear that this “altered” creature had come from there, but not much else was known about this endeavor. Fortunately, Blomkamp shined a bit of light during an interview with Indiewire at Comic-Con:
Nothing has been heard about it since, but Blomkamp said it’s “a weird, strange science fiction comedy” shot on an iPhone, and that there may be more on the way: “That has nothing to do with ‘Elysium.’ That’s another project that may very well see the light of day soon, that is absolutely hilarious. Hilarious. I love that project. I may release another video of that pretty soon actually.” Keep your eyes peeled.
Which brings us to now. Just days after this interview, a video was uploaded to YouTube that looks to be either an official follow-up or a pretty decent fan film.
Set aside the fact that the main guy in this is a terrible actor and very annoying, this does look like it could be legit. The creature is a different design, but still very similar to the original. This makes sense, as the company would probably create/alter all kinds of creatures. There’s the same stamp as well, with the number (looks like “12.42”) being the only clear difference. This time, the video looks to be set in Hargrave, Canada (which is in the middle of nowhere) based on the video’s tags and the Canadian Pacific Railway logo. Plus, the video uploader is apparently in Canada based on the profile. We should note that the factory in the distance isn’t the same as the first video. Speaking of the uploader, while I’m amused by the name “Goaty Balls”, the channel’s actual URL name is “UCgQNBMx-KEFIfSWlzOnNifg”. This doesn’t seem to correlate with anything yet, including a video suffix, but it has to mean something for being so unusual.
My opinion is that this is legit, and not a fan video. Making that creature look and move like it did isn’t easy. It also just happened to be released within 3 days of Blomkamp’s statement, which didn’t get any press to warrant someone rushing out to make a video. I’m doubtful it’s a coincidence, since the original video came out way back in November 2010, and it had mixed reaction and barely a million views. However, you never know, and the blatant tagging of “blomkamp” worries me a bit.
If we assume this is real, it brings up a lot of questions. Where do we go from here? Will we have to wait another 2 years to see a new video that might give us a little more information about the premise? What is Blomkamp’s goal here? What is the end game? What do the video title “marvg” and the end title card “Marvin” mean?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks to Pirka for bringing the video to our attention.
Update
Soon after posting this, Pirka helped me figure out that the actor driving the truck is Josh Blacker, who is in Blomkamp’s Elysium. Given the connection, it looks like this is indeed part of the AGM Heartland project.