The movie takes places 28 years after the aliens' first arrival. The creatures were housed in a temporary government camp which, through overcrowding and militarization, eventually turned into a slum. One theory suggests that the entire leadership had been wiped out by a disease that had spread through the ship. They are later assessed as apparently being all 'workers,' with their leadership mysteriously missing. Once they enter, they discover a million or so aliens, all in a terrible state of malnourishment and sickness. After three months without any contact, the humans decide to take an initiative and cut their way into the ship. In March 1982, a large alien spacecraft comes to Earth, hovering motionless above Johannesburg, South Africa. The film opens with a documentary-style series of interviews that introduce the situation. Many saw the film as a sleeper hit for its relatively unknown cast and modest-budget production, while achieving success and popularity during its theatrical run. Released by TriStar Pictures, the film opened to critical acclaim on August 14, 2009, in North America and earned $37 million in its opening weekend. A viral marketing campaign began in 2008, at the San Diego Comic-Con, while the theatrical trailer appeared in July 2009. The film was produced for $30 million and shot on location in Chiawelo, Soweto, presenting fictional interviews, news footage, and video from surveillance cameras in a part-mock documentary style format. The title and premise of District 9 were inspired by events that took place in District Six, Cape Town during the apartheid era.

The story, adapted from Alive in Joburg, a 2005 short film directed by Blomkamp and produced by Sharlto Copley and Simon Hansen, pivots on the themes of xenophobia and social segregation. The movie was nominated for four Academy Awards in 2010, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Editing. Copley plays the role of Wikus van de Merwe, an Afrikaner bureaucrat assigned to relocate a race of extraterrestrial creatures unexpectedly stranded on Earth, referred to as ' prawns', from District 9, a military-guarded slum in Johannesburg, South Africa, to an internment camp outside the city. The film stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope and David James.

It was written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. District 9 is a 2009 science fiction thriller film directed by Neill Blomkamp.

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