Photo courtesy of My Flair Pix

The panel for Elysium opened with director Neill Blomkamp telling the audience that two years ago he was a newcomer who presented a little film entitled District 9. Comic-Con attendees fully supported the film and spread word on District 9, which Blomkamp said he’s incredibly thankful for. As he put it, “Comic-Con was good to me”.

For a good while now we have known nothing about Elysium other than that it stars Matt Damon. But at Comic-Con we learned the synopsis and had the exclusive chance to see rough footage from the movie.

Synopsis first, yes?

In the future the world is overcrowded, which naturally means resources became scarce. And like many rich people, the wealthy abandon earth to colonize a space station named Elysium. The earth itself is left nearly a husk of a planet with the poor doing what they can to survive.

The focus of the movie is Matt Damon’s character, who suffers a horrific accident that leaves him with five days to live. He rationalizes that his only chance is to travel to Elysium, which has the technology to cure him. In desperation Damon’s character turns to seedy individuals, who only offer to help if he first does something for them.

Cue human going through technological implants, guns, violence and bodies exploding.

When asked about working with Neill Blomkamp, both Matt Damon and Jodie Foster praised District 9 and expressed they felt they needed to work with Blomkamp on a movie.

During the questionnaire, a fan surprisingly brought up Team America to Matt Damon. He took it in stride and joked that he signed more of the puppet picture than of himself.

Sharlto Copley mentioned that his first Comic-Con experience was a very defining moment for him and thanked the attendees for all their support.

One of the locations for Elysium was the second largest garbage dump in the world — you can imagine the smell — yes, that’s right: roses. Okay, I lied. Blomkamp and Damon discussed the stench and how the dust in the air was actually fecal matter. To make matters worse, the helicopters kicked up the fecal dust in the air and covered Damon and others. Copley added, “I was in the helicopter, it was so cool!” Damon concluded by mentioning that Blomkamp told them, “I promise you, the photography looks great!”

The movie uses sci-fi action to explore the theme of the wealthy and the poor, but taken to a disturbing level. And seeing how District 9‘s theme of racism was apparent, it’s clear that Elysium‘s will shine through as well.

Elysium is slated for release March 1, 2013.