Hey guys,
You may have noticed the slow down of updates on this site, that’s all due to personal issues. Now, I’m glad to announce that District9News.com is merging with MovieViral.com. MovieViral.com is a website devoted to following every viral campaign for movies, like District 9. Everyone there does a great job of getting the latest news and rumors. MovieViral.com as even featured in the LA Times. Thanks for following District9News.com and I hope you stay with us at MovieViral.com.
On D-9.com there is now an option to view the memo. Also, click the yellow dot for an extended clip from the trailer. From my experiance, this did not work on Google Chrome, so make sure you’re using FireFox or IE (I haven’t tried IE, but I assume it would work). The memos are shown below (Human and Non-Human versions).
It also seems as if they removed the tweet saying the memo was about Wikus, because as you can see, this memo is about Christopher (or George, I still call him George because, well, that’s his name). Basically it seems like Sony has tried to cover up another mistake:
There is a memo on D-9.com, talking about an agent named Wikus who has gone rogue. Check out my blog for the access code to read the memo.
District 9 has a very versatile viral campaign encompassing two opposing forces, four websites, and the social networking world. Despite all this, many have complained about the viral not living up to it’s potential. Sure, all the pieces are in place, but Sony isn’t playing the game correctly. For instance, they went over 6 months without updating ANY of their viral sites. They set up this vast viral world and then abandon it for half a year. Maybe it was the economy, maybe they thought they started too soon, who knows. What matters is, people weren’t happy.
Even when they start their viral campaign back up, Sony can’t win. Sony created a Twitter account on May 11th for the site mnuspreadslies.com. Seems reasonable enough, except that the name for the account holder was ‘Christopher’. The main alien behind the site was named George, so at first I, like many, though Christopher was another staff member (aka an alien) for the site. But as the weeks followed and Christopher tweeted more, it became clear that he was claiming to write blog posts on the site that had George as the author. Then Sony suddenly changed the author on all the posts to Christopher, likely as a way to cover their tracks, but they forgot something…to change the actual posts. Within many of the posts, the author would sign off as George, and that name is still there.
The obvious explanation is that Sony has just f*cked up and are poor at covering their tracks. However, there are still questions. Why did Sony change the name? Are they really that careless? One, albeit far-off, explanation is that this is actually part of the viral. Somehow, Multi-National United has planted this “Christopher” to replace George, as a spy or something. It could even be a Marcus Wright (Terminator Salvation) scenario. This seems highly unlikely, as there hasn’t even been a whiff of a hint that this is the case. Just seems like reaching to stay oblivious to the obvious truth: Sony messed up.
District 9 releases August 14th. See MovieViral.com’s District 9 page for more details.
Thanks to LuvMyBerry from Twitter for sending me this new find. There was a billboard spotted with a District 9 theme. It is in fact part of the viral campaign. (Please, if you know where the image was taken email me).
The billboard includes a number (as seen above) which you can call, and get a computer operated voice that gives you some options to chose from. Its pretty cool, I suggest checking it out.
A new official image for District 9 was released earlier today. Take a look:
It shows the spaceship on the right, as you can see, as well as some MNU officers patrolling the border.
Also, George from MNUSpreadsLies.com is no longer George. He is going by the name of Christopher, now. Whether its a character change or something to do with the viral is yet to be seen. Some people are throwing out the idea MNU has taken over the blog, but it seems to me like its more of a Sony-young-viral-marketing-experience mistake, unrelated to the viral.
My best guess is the Non-Human in the movie is actually named Christopher, and they originally didn’t want the MNUSpreadsLies character in the move – but later decided he was going to be – so they changed his name (to match the character in the movie). I could be wrong.
So far I would rate this viral at a 3/10. Its been slow and uneventful. I still think the movie is looking good, but the viral isn’t doing to well.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s more to this film than just “here’s aliens, here’s us, here’s how we treat aliens and use their technology” – the end. This movie has a deeper message . . . a much deeper message. This film is going to exploit, indirectly and metaphorically, how we as humans treat other humans and the conditions we live in. There’s really no disputing that the aliens in this film actually represent humans.Whether you know it or not, there’s a lot going on Africa most Western cultures don’t realize or at least want to realize. The conditions in South Africa alone, which is one of the better parts of Africa, are poor. The poverty levels in South Africa are extremely high. There are hundreds of thousands of people living in small shacks. So what better place than South Africa to put a “concentration camp” to oppress this Non-Human race – believe me, its no coincidence Blomkamp picked Africa for his short and for District 9.
Neill Blomkamp grew up in Joburg, South Africa and hes even commented on this very subject by saying:
I was a science-fiction nut when I was growing up in Johannesburg. I just wanted to see that kind of imagery in a third world setting with the complex political history of South Africa.
Not only is poverty a problem in Africa, but slavery is too. From what we can tell and what was released in the Rolling Stone interview the Non-Humans are oppressed and forced into a concentration camp style area and are forced to work. In Africa both slavery and indentured servitude are common, at least to what most people would think possible in the 21st century.
There’s a common belief by Western societies that slavery doesn’t exist anymore. Many Americans think that when Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation in 1861 slavery just ended around the world, or at least died shortly after America declared slavery illegal and inhumane. Of course this isn’t true, and some people are just to ignorant or don’t receive the right education to learn otherwise. The fact of the matter is, this is still a big problem in the world.
Image from the District 9 trailer
I doubt this movie will appear political, but I guarantee it will be (but I don’t expect it to be left or right winged). I doubt this movie will directly come out and say “there’s a problem, here’s what we should do”. I think its slowly going to reveal this message indirectly through sly metaphors and with indirect references to the problems Africa faces.
What do you think about the political and social message of District 9? Leave a comment and maybe I’ll add it to the post!
MNUSpreadsLies.com has been updated by George with a new post that contains a trailer which has no blurred face and subtitles. The post reads:
Thank you for the kind messages and worm welcome back. Many of you are curious as to where I have been – literally where “I dissapeared to”. For the past months, I have been held against my will by MNU. I know, its almost seems implausible that they would be able to simply make me disapear but I assure you it happened (and it happens more often to non-humans than you think).
Need proof? Here is video footage of my first interrogation. See the real me. See the real truth.
Rolling Stone magazine had a nice article in the newest issue (featuring Bob Dylan on the cover). They included it in the Summer movie preview. It includes interviews with both Blomkamp (director) and Jackson (producer). To read the article, click the image above.
I would say the most interesting quote is ”These aliens arrived 20 years ago in a dead, derelict mothership, which hovers above Johannesburg. It’s enormous, like the size of 10 football fields. The aliens have ended up in a Soweto-style township beneath the ship. It’s clear that they’re not really integrating into society. They like to scavenge things, rip up train tracks. So the authorities shift them 200 miles away, into the African belt. They’ve built a concentration camp.” Obviously, the concentration camp is known as ‘District 9′.
It also included a new image, as you can see below. I scanned it also, so here it is in a higher resolution.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s more to this film than just “here’s aliens, here’s us, here’s how we treat aliens and use their technology” – the end. This movie has a deeper message . . . a much deeper message. This film is going to exploit, indirectly and metaphorically, how we as humans treat other humans and the conditions we live in. There’s really no disputing that the aliens in this film actually represent humans.Whether you know it or not, there’s a lot going on Africa most Western cultures don’t realize or at least want to realize. The conditions in South Africa alone, which is one of the better parts of Africa, are poor. The poverty levels in South Africa are extremely high. There are hundreds of thousands of people living in small shacks. So what better place than South Africa to put a “concentration camp” to oppress this Non-Human race – believe me, its no coincidence Blomkamp picked Africa for 
