Every video that Die Antwoord put out lately feels like its very own high-budget film trailer (“Pitbull Terrier”, “Cookie Thumper”), so it’s pretty cool to see Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er make the official jump to the silver screen in upcoming sci-fi flick Chappie.
The South African rap-rave duo star in the new film from District 9 and Elysium director Neill Blomkamp, playing a pair of criminals who kidnap an artificial intelligence robot designed to police the streets of their hometown. The robot has human emotions and sentience, and well, let’s just see how it develops under the care of Antwoord.
What could go wrong?
The feel of Chappie seems tailor-made for the Vi$$er and Ninja, which plays on Blomkamp’s themes and imagery first unveiled in 2009’s District 9.
Here’s the film’s official description, beyond “Holy Fucking Shit Die Antwoord Is In A High-Budget Movie”: “Every child comes into the world full of promise, and none more so than Chappie: he is gifted, special, a prodigy. Like any child, Chappie will come under the influence of his surroundings – some good, some bad – and he will rely on his heart and soul to find his way in the world and become his own man. But there’s one thing that makes Chappie different from anyone else: he is a robot. The first robot with the ability to think and feel for himself. His life, his story, will change the way the world looks at robots and humans forever.”
Chappie, which also stars Hugh Jackman, hits theaters March 6.