I hadn't realized that the world almost got a first glimpse at District 9 over the weekend before Crank 2, until Sony pulled the movie's trailer at the last minute. We missed out, for sure, but at least Sony has released the first image from the film to tide us over.

The image, procured by Slashfilm, features main character Wikus (Sharlto Copley), a government agent who is infected by alien bio material and has to go on the run to live with the previously-feared aliens. Wait, I hear you saying-- aliens?? Yes, aliens. District 9 is the super-secret project from producer Peter Jackson and director Neill Blomkamp that many people suspected was a cover for a Halo movie. Instead it's a feature version of Blomkamp's short film Alive, about a version of South Africa where aliens landed decades earlier, and have been sequestered in the slum known as District 9, in a not-necessarily-subtle nod to South Africa's own history of apartheid.

I wrote about the footage from District 9 screened at ShoWest here, and said that District 9 had become one of my most-anticipated movies of the summer. It comes out August 14, and hopefully very soon you'll all be able to get a taste of what was screened at ShoWest. In the meantime head to Slashfilm and check out the full image of summer's newest hero.