South African writer/director Neill Blomkamp, who masterminded the sci-fi action/thriller District 9, will be gearing up for his next project.

According to “Variety,” Blomkamp has plans for making another sci-fi movie and which will begin production sometime next year.  Media Rights Capital will commit to the project with Bill Block (District 9) serving as producer. MCR will also look for a distributor while the movie is in production.

“Blomkamp will immediately start writing and preparing the visual effects. The film will be modest by sci-fi standards, but it will certainly cost more than ‘District 9,’ which was budgeted under $30 million and grossed more than $184 million worldwide.”

I thought District 9 was terrific and one of the most original sci-fi movies I’ve seen in a long time. I’ll be excited to see what Blomkamp comes up with since he’s staying in the sci-fi genre. There had been murmurs of a District 10, but I certainly felt D9 held up on it’s own two just fine. This news continues to make it seem like the Halo project is definitely off his table.