While we sadly won’t be getting Neill Blomkamp‘s next sci-fi film early next year, hopefully the wait is worth it, as Sony recently pushed Elysium back to the director’s more familiar territory of mid-August. Although we’re still awaiting a trailer, we’ve seen a few glimpses of lead Matt Damon and now Empire has delivered a first look at the villain, played by Sharlto Copley.
Switching to an evil side after playing our District 9 hero, Copley plays a man named Kruger who works under Jodie Foster‘s character. Copley opened up on how he drew from real for the character, saying, “I combined references from a very infamous South African military battalion called 32 Battalion, that fought in the Border Wars in South Africa, and a stereotype of character that you get in the south of Johannesburg, where the guys are a little bit more comfortable with violence!” Check it out below, along with a new, expanded synopsis for the film also starring Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura and William Fichtner.
In the year 2159, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy, who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. The people of Earth are desperate to escape the planet’s crime and poverty, and they critically need the state-of-the-art medical care available on Elysium – but some in Elysium will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve their citizens’ luxurious lifestyle. The only man with the chance bring equality to these worlds is Max (Matt Damon), an ordinary guy in desperate need to get to Elysium. With his life hanging in the balance, he reluctantly takes on a dangerous mission – one that pits him against Elysium’s Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) and her hard-line forces – but if he succeeds, he could save not only his own life, but millions of people on Earth as well.
Elysium arrives on August 9th, 2013.