Neill Blomkamp just dropped a short prequel film to BioWare's Anthem video game

Recently announced as the director of a RoboCop sequel for MGM, Neill Blomkamp has been busy on another cinematic project that won't see a release in theaters.

The filmmaker behind such highbrow science fiction like District 9 and Elysium announced Tuesday that he was working on a short prequel movie to BioWare's upcoming video game, Anthem. Titled Conviction, the film is set decades before the game's plot and stars Sean Carrigan of American Vandal fame.

“I was in popcorn movie mode,” Blomkamp told Entertainment Weekly. “It just looks like a really big, fun summer movie.”

Well, that film finally dropped today, and you can watch the live-action short (which plays more like a high-end trailer for the game) below:

While only three minutes long, Conviction still took around six months to complete, even with the help of Blomkamp's newly created independent production studio, Oats. 

“The amount of shooting time and how much imagery you have to actually capture into three minutes to make it feel legitimate is exponentially more work than you think it would be,” the filmmaker added in his EW chat. "We have to overshoot it in order to make it feel like a trailer so we can pick the best pieces.”

The game takes place in a world where a bunch of gods tapped into a source of creation known as the Anthem. They summoned awe-inspiring lands and beasts, but then vanished without a trace, leaving behind their tools of creation.

The Anthem began to cause terrible disasters and corrupted any humans who tried to harness its power. To circumvent this, the Javelin Exosuit was created and entrusted to a precious few known as the Freelancers, who protect the rest of humankind against the terrible beasts and other threats left behind by the vanished deities. 

Anthem drops on Feb. 22.