Sharlto Copley: 'District 9 sequel has huge potential' (Exclusive)

Speaking to Sharlto Copley and not mentioning sci-fi fan favourite ‘District 9’ is a hard thing to do. So, doing press for his latest team-up with director Neill Blomkamp ‘Elysium’, in which Sharlto plays vicious mercenary Kruger, we went for it - asking if the movie making duo would ever return to the film that made them famous.

“Yeah I think so. I think that’ll happen,” said Sharlto, talking to Yahoo! Movies UK about his work with Blomkamp. “The second time round you hope that they’ll be ready, and there’ll be toys, and there’ll be stuff to really get out there any make the most of that project, which I think is really close to both of our hearts.”

“There’s huge potential in [a sequel]”

[Matt Damon: Elysium reminds me of Avatar]

Sharlto, who played pen-pusher turned alien-outlaw in Blomkamp’s 2009 movie, admitted he felt the competitiveness of the movie industry meant it was almost “essential” to revisit old characters, telling us “It’s very hard to think of a character that is in pop culture where they only did one film.”

“It’s such a competitive business that it’s almost essential for you to come back and revisit the characters to really entrench a certain brand or whatever,” he added. “And that’s why the reliance then on franchises, because it is so competitive out there.”

[Blomkamp talks District 9 sequel and failed Halo movie]

Check out the rest of our interview with Sharlto above, including the ‘Elysium’ star telling us why he thinks him an Neill have “only scratched the surface” of what they can do, and his recipe for the perfect movie villain.

‘Elysium’, Co-starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, is out in the UK 21 August 2013.