Neill Blomkamp’s ‘Chappie’ Dated for Spring 2015

While it took Neill Blomkamp four years to follow up 2009's 'District 9' with this year's 'Elysium,' he's not going to wait as long for his third feature. 'Chappie,' which will star Sharlto Copley, is now set to be released on March 27, 2015.

This has been a very successful release date over the last couple years as 'The Hunger Games' and 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation' were released around the same time. And considering that 2015's summer could be a bloodbath, they'll at least be out front. They are scheduled to open three weeks after the 'Fantastic Four' reboot, and the same weekend as 'The Penguins of Madagascar.'

When asked to describe the project, Blomkamp said this to Empire a while back:

It’s a science-fiction comedy thing, that’s as far as I can go with that. District 9, Elysium and Chappie were all born out of some visual concept first. Chappie is the imagery, because I think I’m a visual person first, of this ridiculous robot character. It’s much more comedy based, and in an unusual setting.”

While the plot is described as such: "Chappie tells the story of a robot imbued with artificial intelligence who is stolen by two local gangsters who want to use him for their own nefarious purposes." Currently Copley is attached to voice the main character, while Die Antwoord's Ninja and Yolandi Visser will play the gangsters. Dev Patel was in talks to play the film's lead, but he is currently not signed.