Yet another original short film from Oats Studios and Neill Blomkamp, titled Adam: The Mirror, has been released online. Blomkamp’s career has taken an interesting turn since his acclaimed first movie District 9. That film drew raves for its unique style, fleshed out sci-fi world and Sharlto Copley’s lead turn. Sadly, the director’s next two movie projects failed to draw the same praise.

Elysium had a great promise, strong cast and healthy budget, but the script left a lot to be desired; Blomkamp himself has since admitted it didn’t quite work. Chappie also attracted bad reviews for its jarring tonal shifts and over the top acting - though the film has become something of a cult item now. Blomkamp has since set up his own studio, which he dubbed Oats Studios. He’s since released a number of high-concept short films online through the banner, from the apocalyptic Rakka to monster movie Zygote.

Related: Watch Neill Blomkamp's Zygote Online

Now the latest short from Oats Studios - titled Adam: The Mirror - has gone online. The film is actually a sequel to 2016’s Adam, a short designed to showcase the graphical power of the Unity game engine. Adam’s story involves a human whose brain has been wiped and placed inside a robot shell; he and a crowd of prisoners are then exiled from a walled futuristic city and rescued by a mysterious outsider. The Mirror picks up from the original's cliffhanger, where Adam learns more of his past.

It’s an intriguing, visually rich film, and another chapter dubbed The Prophet will be arriving soon. Blomkamp seems to have found his creative mojo outside the studio system, if the work he’s producing at Oats is any indication. It allows him to jump from the grim sci-fi of Rakka to the silly comedy of Cooking With Bill, and since the shorts are self-financed he doesn’t have to rein himself in.

The future of Oats appears uncertain for now. The director took it upon himself to set up the studio and produce his own work, but he never had a solid plan for how it would turn a profit. Several of the films are left open for sequels or even feature adaptations, but there doesn’t seem to be any active developments right now.

On the feature side, Blomkamp was famously attached to a planned Alien sequel that would have brought back Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, and act as a “true” sequel to the first two Alien movies. Since that project was scrapped in favor of continuing Ridley Scott’s vision of the franchise, Blomkamp’s next feature-length film now looks to be The Gone World, based on the time travel novel of the same name. That movie doesn't currently have a release date, but Blomkamp's next short Adam: The Prophet is expected to arrive online before the end of the year.

NEXT: Neill Blomkamp Wants to Finish District 9's Story

Source: Oats Studios