An official synopsis included in an invitation to a private screening of Elysium gives a far better idea of just what form the social stratification will take, though the status of damon's shaved noggin is still not entirely clear.  The class distinction and the divide between upper and lower will be pretty literal, with the rich living on a lavish space station and the poor living in squalor down on Earth in the year 2159.  District 9 featured almost Verhoeven-like violence, body horror, comedic characterization, and a social conscience as a blunt instrument to make a statement, and it sounds like Elysium will be equally unsubtle in its themes.

That's not terribly surprising.  When Blomkamp was developing the live-action Halo movie for producer Peter Jackson, he designed the film as an exploration of the dehumanizing military-industrial complex that creates the unstoppable Master Chief.  In an American studio system to which Paul Verhoeven no longer contributes, let us be thankful that there's somebody out there using commercial science fiction to make a statement about how we live now.

The invite (included at the bottom of this page) and the synopsis it contains are courtesy of the good folks over at Collider.

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. Secretary Rhodes (Jodie Foster), a hard the government official, will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium. That doesn’t stop the people of Earth from trying to get in, by any means they can. When unlucky Max (Matt Damon) is backed into a corner, he agrees to take on a daunting mission that if successful will not only save his life, but could bring equality to these polarized worlds.

Good to have a better idea of exactly what Jodie Foster's role in the film entails.  Damon's character, Max, is still plenty mysterious, but we can expect his journey to involve some Wikus Van De Werwe-style suffering.  Speaking of Wikus, District 9 star Sharlto Copley will appear in Elysium, along with Diego Luna, Alice Braga, Faran Tahir, William Fichtner, Carly Pope, and Michael Shanks.

Sony Pictures will distribute Elysium theatrically on March 1, 2013.