Neill Blomkamp's Elysium has promise to be one of the biggest sci-fi adventures of the summer. The South African writer/director blew us all away with his 2009 debut, the Academy Award nominated District 9, and it appears that he has actually upped the ante for his sophomore effort. Not only does the movie feature big name stars like Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, the story itself plays out on an epic scale, set not only on a future Earth much different than are own, but also on a gigantic space station floating amongst the stars. It's a film that will likely demand to be seen on the biggest screen possible, and this August IMAX will be delivering that very option.
The theater brand has officially announced on their homepage that when Elysium arrives in theaters on August 9th, it will also be showing in IMAX theaters around the country. According to the blurb that accompanied the announcement, the movie wasn't filmed in the expanded format - like Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises - but has been digitally re-mastered with the company's IMAX DMR® (Digital Re-mastering) technology to match the normal IMAX Experience.
In the film, which was both written and directed by Blomkamp, Damon stars as a character named Max De Costa, a reformed former criminal living on an Earth that has been overrun by poverty and disease. Most of society's ills can be traced to the fact that all of the wealthy people on the planet have moved to a space station called Elysium, a place that is completely free from violence, illness and all of the other problems that plague those who still live on the planet's surface. One day at work Max is involved in an industrial accident that leaves him poisoned and only a few days away from death. With no other option, the hero calls on his old criminal associates so that he can try and find a way to get to Elysium, and not only save his own life, but potentially the lives of everyone on Earth. You can watch the most recent trailer below.
Audiences can currently see Zack Snyder's Man of Steel in IMAX theaters everywhere, but this weekend will see Guillermo del Toro's giant monsters vs. giant robots take over the big screens when Pacific Rim arrives. David Twohy's long-awaited Riddick is also set to be released in the format when it comes out in early September, and both Nolan and Michael Bay have announced that they will be filming their next projects, Interstellar and Transformers 4, respectively, partially using IMAX cameras.
