Last Friday I headed down to Wellington’s Embassy theatre for the launch of Weta Workshop’s “The Art Of District 9” book.

The book is gorgeous: packed to the gills with sumptuous images, including work by Christian Pearce, whose illustration also features on the cover of our upcoming Five Men Standing rugby boardgame!

It’s fabulous that they included a lot of development work that never ended up on the screen. You really get to see the creative process through all its twists and turns, from sketches to artwork to working prototypes and functioning final items.

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Yummy Weta goodness!

If you’re a sci-fi fan, a Weta fan, or just love to get a look behind the scenes of moviemaking, I highly recommend you grab a copy.

The event was also a lovely chance to meet and chat with Weta folk, like author Daniel Falconer, artist Greg Broadmore, and amazing graphic designer Leri Greer. I spent some time nurturing my inner geek by blathering on to them, and then sorted my outer geek by playing with some of the weaponry they had on display:

Then it was on to a screening of the film, introduced by Richard Taylor and prefaced by development stories from Daniel, Greg, David Meng and Leri. It’s been a few months since I last saw District 9, but it reminded me again why I rank it up there with my sci-fi favourites Blade Runner and Gattaca. Astonishing![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]