Citing Tepid Crowdfunding Results, Neill Blomkamp Cancels Plans To Adapt Digital Short Into Feature

Just a few days ago, Neill Blomkamp spoke of his desire to “build something different” with Firebase, a film adaptation of one of his short films. Unfortunately, it now seems as if that revolutionary work will have to wait. The District 9 director has shelved his Firebase plans after the project received tepid support via crowdfunding.

Blomkamp initially released Firebase, which takes place during the Vietnam War, as a short film distributed via his Oats Studios channel. Blomkamp launched Oats Studios last year in order to showcase the thrilling, polished work he and his team were creating outside of the Hollywood system. After those shorts garnered considerable attention online, Blomkamp announced his plans to adapt one of them into a longer format, with fans providing funding via the Oats Studios website. In order to promote that campaign, he took to Twitch, where he screened all of the Oats Studios shorts

as part of a miniature film festival.

Unfortunately, that idea didn’t catch on with fans. Though Blomkamp initially said he would make some sort of Firebase project no matter how much it raised online, he has now walked that promise back and cancelled the project.

As it turns out, revolutionizing the film biz is hard. For now, we’ll stay tuned to the Oats Studios YouTube channel in hopes of checking out more shorts from Blomkamp and his cohorts.