A few weeks ago Neil Blomkamp came straight out and said that his Halo movie was basically dead forever. So he and his mentor Peter Jackson have found something else to do. They’re sticking with what Blomkamp knows best, and doing a science fiction movie.

Variety says it’s called District 9, which sounds like the title of someone’s low-budget student film. But it’s unlikely that this flick will be anything but big budget. Peter Jackson is set to produce the movie through WingNut Films while Blomkamp will direct from a script he co-wrote with his partner Terri Tatchell. I guess she’s kind of like his Fran Walsh.

They’ve gone outside the Hollywood system to get financing, probably because Hollywood has already done a pretty good job of scoffing at the notion of handing over massive wads of cash to a first-timer like Blomkamp. If you want to know why the Halo movie never happened, well that’s it. It’s unfortunate that Blomkamp hadn’t made this before Jackson insisted on attaching him to Halo, I’m sure their financeers would have felt a little better about the whole thing if Blomkamp had something to show them besides a few mildly interesting commercials starring robots.

We don’t know what District 9 is about yet, but we do know the effects will be done by WETA, so expect it to look really freakin cool. Sci Fi has been undermined as a genre in recent years. Peter Jackson managed to bring Fantasy back, maybe he and Blomkamp can do the same for the Science Fiction flick.