5 Promising Directors From The 2000s (Who've Sucked Since Their Debut)

The Debut - District 9 (2009), Subsequent Films - Elysium (2013), Chappie (2015)

Beginning his career as an animator, Neil Blomkamp was originally tapped up by Lord Of The Rings' director Peter Jackson to make a movie based on the Halo franchise. When that fell through, he instead opted to make a feature length adaptation of one of his short films, Alive In Joburg. The result was District 9, one of the greatest modern sci-fi creations.

By depicting aliens as refugees on Earth instead of invaders, Blomkamp had an original concept that made no effort to disguise itself as an metaphor for the Apartheid that had racially segregated his native South Africa before 1990. Lead character Wikus' biological transformation from an everyday bureaucrat into one of the 'prawns' that he turned a blind eye to the mistreatment of is haunting, meanwhile.

The seeds seemed planted for a sequel, but Blomkamp opted to expand his scifi horizons further with Elysium instead. With another great concept (the 99% live in poverty on an overpopulated and polluted Earth whilst the 1% lord over them in a space station) and an a $115 million budget it should've propelled him to the top of Hollywood, but ended up being an underwhelming (albeit still watchable) affair.

Chappie then bombed much harder critically, with poor storytelling and the misguided casting of rap duo Die Antwoord in leading roles. As a result, Blomkamp has now returned to making shorts and distributing them through YouTube.