Hollywood ending not too shabby for a fellow straggler

THANKS to Neill Blomkamp, I am now one of those people who went to school with someone who has become famous.

Blomkamp and I attended Redhill School in Morningside, Johannesburg, until he moved to Vancouver with his family in Grade 11 in 1996. The next time I heard his name was in 2009 when his first film, District 9, had just been released.

Sharlto Copley, who acts in District 9 and Elysium, also attended Redhill School, where he and Blomkamp met.

I am not going to say Blomkamp and I were close friends or anything, because we were not, although I do recall that at some point in Grade 10 we discovered we shared a similar sense of humour and used to spend the odd lesson coming up with a series of absurd names for fictional heavy-metal bands.

But my abiding memory of Blomkamp is that he was an exceptional artist. He could draw anything.

He was obsessed with the drawings of HR Giger, the Swiss surrealist artist best known for creating the visual look of the Alien films. A lot of Blomkamp’s drawings featured the horrible creatures and murky backdrops inspired by Giger. He had no interest in academic subjects. Like me, he was in the class for slackers, troublemakers and back-chatterers.

He must also have had an interest in film, for I remember him raving to some friends about a specific scene in the 1995 David Fincher movie, Seven, starring Brad Pitt. And when we were given a project for our business economics class, instead of using a pen and paper (or overhead projector screen at best), Blomkamp made a short film.

I remember nothing of the film except that he ended it with a message that somewhat mockingly dedicated the film to our sour old business economics teacher.

I have little further recollection of Blomkamp, except that he seemed a lively and imaginative boy who was more interested in science fiction and film than sport and girls, yet he still managed not to be a nerd.

So was it strange to see him at the Oscars in 2010? Was it weird to see him featured in Time magazine’s Top 100? Is it odd to hear his name mentioned in the same breath as those of Ridley Scott, Peter Jackson and even George Lucas? Is it surreal to see footage of him directing stars like Matt Damon and Jodie Foster?

Not really. Obviously the talent, work and networking required to operate at that level is immense, but, with hindsight, it is clear this was his destiny. And, for a fellow straggler, it is not a bad one at all.