The film was directed and co-written by South African native Neill Blomkamp, making his feature directorial debut after a career of doing commercials. The movie cost roughly R240 million to make - a modest budget by Hollywood standards.
The cast of unknowns stars South African newcomer Sharlto Copley as a bureaucrat leading the forced eviction of alien creatures from a Johannesburg slum, District 9, where they have been settled since their ship stalled over the city 20 years earlier, marooning them on Earth.
