But, asks Tom Huddleston, what is ‘District 9’? And will this heavy duty marketing campaign actually sell tickets?
You’ll have seen the posters by now: the silhouetted form of an alien emblazoned with a giant red X, above the stark warning ‘For Humans Only! Non-Humans Banned!’ You might have seen the trailers, featuring the interrogation of a slimy, confused-looking beast, his face blurred to prevent identification. The committed nerds among you may even have delved into some of the weirder promotional content: the telephone hotline to report alien sightings, the disturbing, minimalist website dedicated to crypto-fascist corporation MNU, where a bland female voice heralds a new age of pioneering scientific discovery, or the blog set up by freedom-loving alien ‘prawns’ featuring footage of illegal experimentation and calls for ‘equal rights for non-humans!’ Best of all is the official website, www.D-9.com, which is separated into human and non-human areas. The human site is friendly and welcoming, connecting to a map of the city and street interviews in which the outraged people of Johannesburg comp
