Alien apartheid at center of ‘District 9’

Movie: "District 9"

When: Opening Friday at local theaters

Cast: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, David James, Mandla Gaduka

Director: Neill Blomkamp

The story: Extraterrestrials living on Earth, in the slumlike District 9, find a kindred spirit when a government agent assigned to evict them becomes exposed to their biotechnology -- and must run for his life when he becomes a human-alien hybrid.

The buzz: South African-born Canadian filmmaker Neill Blomkamp imagines an alien apartheid in his sci-fi breakout, which was produced by his mentor, "Lord of the Rings" maven Peter Jackson. Blomkamp's inspiration: his own 2005 short, "Alive in Joburg," a mock documentary depiction of the friction between aliens and inhabitants of the South African city of Johannesburg, aka (you guessed it) "Joburg."