Neill Blomkamp's New Darkly Comic Short Film, 'God,' Stars Sharlto Copley as a Fickle Deity

Neill Blomkamp won’t be making his long-discussed Alien sequel, which would have taken place directly after Aliens, but was permanently shelved thanks to Ridley Scott’s ongoing prequel series (Prometheus, Alien: Covenant). Nonetheless, he’s continued to keep himself busy by creating a series of short films for his own Oats Studio that are designed to gauge industry and audience interest in their concepts, with an eye toward possibly expanding on them. The first two, Rakka and Firebase, ran over 20 minutes and felt like offshoots of Blomkamp’s prior features (District 9, Elysium, Chappie). But with his latest, he’s gone in a decidedly more unique, darkly comedic direction.

In the nearly four-minute God: Serengeti (via Slashfilm; watch it above), Blomkamp reteams with his favorite actor — District 9 lead Sharlto Copley — for a satirical look at the Creator. In long white hair and a matching beard, Copley’s deity sits in a study at a giant table that resembles the Serengeti desert, replete with tiny elephants and people, whom he watches with fascination and bemusement while reading from a giant tome. Admitting that “I like the chaos,” he soon has his butler tend to his flock, although as becomes all-too-clear, this God is a fickle Father, his manipulative actions based as much on whim as anything else.

Blomkamp’s new short signals he’s game to branch out into less overtly sci-fi territory. Check out the filmmaker’s other shorts at Oats Studio’s official YouTube page.

Neill Blomkamp’s ‘District 9’: Watch a trailer:

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