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'District 9' Co-Writer Terri Tatchell Writing a Funky New Sci-Fi Project
by Alex Billington
February 23, 2010
Source: io9
I'm guessing most of you didn't even know District 9 had a co-writer? Indeed it did. In fact, Terri Tatchell is married to director Neill Blomkamp, so it was more than just a simple collaboration. This story is a bit old but I just found it today thanks to our friends at GeekTyrant. A few weeks back on, the sci-fi site io9 did an interview with Tatchell talking about the success of District 9 and what's next for her and Neill. Tatchell revealed that she's been working on a screenplay that's a feature-length adaptation of a short sci-fi / fantasy film called Terminus. The concept is just wacky, I don't know how she'll make it work, you gotta hear this.
Here's an excerpt from the io9 interview with Tatchell talking about the status of the Terminus screenplay.
"The film I'm working on now is an adaptation of a short film called Terminus. It's a bit more science fiction, fantasy. It's about a stone creature that follows this stressed-out guy around, just stressing him more and more. It was incredibly well received, and the director that created it, [Trevor Cawood] hasn't done a feature yet, and he's really talented. I approached him about writing a feature script of that. It's been a little more challenging than I expected it to be. I'm probably on my second draft now. I'm not ready to send it off yet, but we'll see."
I've embedded a YouTube version of the short film Terminus below for your viewing pleasure. It's actually a pretty awesome short, it has some great effects and it's just a fun little film. This kind of reminds me of the success story of Federico Alvarez, the Uruguayan filmmaker who broke out with his YouTube short Panic Attack. It's an odd concept for a feature film, but that's what I love about this, because I love seeing original and unique ideas in this industry and if Tatchell and Blomkamp can help filmmaker Trevor Cawood actually get this made, all the better. I'm a big supporter of indie filmmakers who take crazy concepts and bring them to life and this is that kind of project. Hopefully we'll see Terminus at a festival sometime in the near future.
10 Comments
1
Not sure how much writing he did in District 9 but if he's writing something original I'll check it out.
Jake the snake on Feb 23, 2010
2
3
In the immortal words of Wavy Gravy, "Don't take the brown acid!" It'll be interesting to see how this could evolve into a feature. Given that the premise is so loose, I imagine they could take it in just about any direction. Thanks for sharing more indie projects, Alex. 🙂
Evo on Feb 23, 2010
4
I love stories like this, and Terminus is a very cool short film - I'm interested to see what they can do with it to make it feature length.
Darren Albert on Feb 23, 2010
5
It was alright for an 8 minute short but I to make it into a feature film seems pushing it. The short felt a little long and it was under 10 minutes.
nsx on Feb 23, 2010
6
we need more sci-fi, and if Tatchell is involved I think it could be something great.
Xerxex on Feb 23, 2010
7
It will not work as a feature unless they change the whole damn thing. Maybe turn it into a family movie... or a comedy. As a short it only LOOKED cool... I found it boring to watch. Lord have mercy should a feature be about a mute stone dude following some dude around.
dffsgf on Feb 24, 2010
8
@7 Yes... Because nothing screams "family movie" like a dude cracking his head on a coffee table, then getting smeared by a bus...
nate on Feb 24, 2010
9
Oh she! Sorry I didn't realize that. And she's married to blomkamp? She writes and he directs - let's get it rolling.
Jake the snake on Feb 24, 2010
10
Well I think Cawood may be a friend of both Tatchell and Blomkamp, his name comes up on a few of Blomkamp's shorts, and look at IMDB credits for Blomkamp and Cawood and you will see that they worked on many of the same professional FX roles.
Snyder on Oct 11, 2010
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