Peter Jackson

Jackson's first feature was Bad Taste, a haphazard fashion splatter comedy which took years to make, it included many of Jackson's friends acting and working on it for free. Shooting was normally done in the weekends since Jackson was then working full-time. Bad Taste is about aliens that come to earth with the intention of turning humans into food. Jackson had two acting roles including a famous scene in which he fights himself on top of a cliff. The film was finally completed thanks to a late injection of finance from the New Zealand Film Commission, after Jim Booth, the body's executive director, became convinced of Jackson's talent (Booth later left the commission to become Jackson's producer). In May 1987, Bad Taste was unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival, where rights to the film quickly sold to twelve countries.[19]

Around this time, Jackson began working on writing a number of film scripts, in varied collaborative groupings with playwright Stephen Sinclair, writer Fran Walsh and writer/actor Danny Mulheron. Walsh would later become his life partner.[4] Some of the scripts from this period, including a sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street, have never been made into movies; the proposed zombie film Braindead underwent extensive rewrites.[4]

Jackson's next film to see release was Meet the Feebles (1989), co-written with Sinclair, Walsh and Mulheron. An ensemble musical comedy starring Muppet-style puppets, Meet the Feebles originally began as a short film intended for television, but was rapidly expanded into a full-length film after unanticipated enthusiasm from Japanese investors, and the collapse of Braindead, six weeks before filming. Begun on a very low budget, Meet the Feebles went weeks over schedule. Jackson stated of his second feature-length film, "It's got a quality of humour that alienates a lot of people.. It's very black, very satirical, very savage."[20] Feebles marked Jackson's first collaboration with special effects team Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger, who would later work on all Jackson's movies. Jackson's next release was the horror comedy Braindead (1992) (released in North America as Dead Alive).[21]

Released in 1994 after Jackson won a race to bring the story to the screen, Heavenly Creatures marked a major change for Jackson in terms of both style and tone. The film is based on the real Parker–Hulme murder case in which two teenage girls in 1950s Christchurch became close friends and later murdered the mother of one of the girls. It was Fran Walsh that persuaded him that these events had the makings of a movie;[22] Jackson has been quoted saying that the film "only got made" because of her enthusiasm for the subject matter.[23] The film's fame coincided with the New Zealand media tracking down the real-life Juliet Hulme, who now writes books under the name Anne Perry. Jackson hired actresses Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet in the roles of Parker and Hulme. Heavenly Creatures received considerable critical acclaim, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay[24] and making top ten of the year lists in Time, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The New Zealand Herald. The success of Heavenly Creatures won Jackson attention from US company Miramax, who promoted the film vigorously in America and signed the director to a first-look deal.[25]

The following year, in collaboration with Wellington film-maker Costa Botes, Jackson co-directed the mockumentary Forgotten Silver (1995). This ambitious made-for-television piece told the story of New Zealand film pioneer Colin McKenzie, who had supposedly invented colour film and 'talkies', and attempted an epic film of Salome before being forgotten by the world. Though the programme played in a slot normally reserved for drama, no other warning was given that it was fictionalised and many viewers were outraged at discovering Colin McKenzie had never existed.[26][27] The number of people who believed the increasingly improbable story provides testimony to Jackson and Botes' skill at playing on New Zealand's national myth of a nation of innovators and forgotten trail-blazers.[28]

The success of Heavenly Creatures helped pave the way for Jackson's first big budget Hollywood film, The Frighteners starring Michael J. Fox, in 1996. Jackson was given permission to make this comedy/horror film entirely in New Zealand despite being set in a North American town. This period was a key one of change for both Jackson and Weta Workshop, the special effects company—born from the one-man contributions of George Port to Heavenly Creatures—with which Jackson is often associated. Weta, initiated by Jackson and key collaborators, grew rapidly during this period to incorporate both digital and physical effects, make-up and costumes, the first two areas normally commanded by Jackson collaborator Richard Taylor.[29][30]

The Frighteners was regarded as a box office failure.[31] Film critic Roger Ebert expressed disappointment stating that "incredible effort has resulted in a film that looks more like a demo reel than a movie".[32] In February 1997, Jackson launched legal proceedings against the New Zealand Listener magazine for defamation, over a review of The Frighteners which claimed that the film was "built from the rubble of other people's movies".[33][34] In the end, the case was not pursued further. Around this time Jackson's remake of King Kong was shelved by Universal Studios, partly because of Mighty Joe Young and Godzilla, both giant monster movies, that had already gone into production. Universal feared it would be thrown aside by the two higher budget movies.[35]

This period of transition seems not to have been entirely a happy one; it also marked one of the high points of tension between Jackson and the New Zealand Film Commission since Meet the Feebles had gone over-budget earlier in his career. Jackson has claimed the Commission considered firing him from Feebles, though the NZFC went on to help fund his next three films. In 1997, the director submitted a lengthy criticism of the commission for a magazine supplement meant to celebrate the body's 20th anniversary, criticising what he called inconsistent decision-making by inexperienced board members. The magazine felt that the material was too long and potentially defamatory to publish in that form; a shortened version of the material went on to appear in Metro magazine.[36][37][38][39] In the Metro article Jackson criticized the Commission over funding decisions concerning a film he was hoping to executive produce, but refused to drop a client-confidentiality clause that allowed them to publicly reply to his criticisms.

Peter Jackson at the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King on 1 December 2003 at the Embassy Theatre in Wellington.

Jackson won the rights to film Tolkien's epic in 1997 after meeting with producer Saul Zaentz. Originally working with Miramax Films towards a two-film production, Jackson was later pressured to render the story as a single film,[40][41] and finally overcame a tight deadline by making a last-minute deal with New Line, who were keen on a trilogy.[42]

Principal photography stretched from 11 October 1999 to 22 December 2000 with extensive location filming across New Zealand. With the benefit of extended post-production and extra periods of shooting before each film's release, the series met with huge success and sent Jackson's popularity soaring. The Return of the King itself met with huge critical acclaim, winning all eleven Oscars it was nominated for, including Best Picture and Best Director. The film was the first of the fantasy film genre to win the award for Best Picture and was the second sequel to win Best Picture (the first being The Godfather Part II). Jackson's mother, Joan, died three days before the release of the first movie in the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. There was a special showing of the film after her funeral.[43]

Following The Return of the King, Jackson lost a large amount of weight, over 50 pounds (23 kg). In The Daily Telegraph, he attributed his weight loss to his diet. He said, "I just got tired of being overweight and unfit, so I changed my diet from hamburgers to yogurt and muesli and it seems to work."[44]

Universal Studios signed Jackson for a second time to remake the 1933 classic King Kong—the film that inspired him to become a film director as a child.[45] He was reportedly paid a fee of US$20 million upfront, the highest salary ever paid to date to a film director in advance of production, against a 20 percent take of the box-office rentals (the portion of the price of the ticket that goes to the film distributor, in this case Universal). The film was released on 14 December 2005 to critical acclaim and grossed around US$550 million worldwide.[46] He also collaborated with game designer Michel Ancel from Ubisoft to make a video game adaptation of the film, which released 21 November 2005 and was also a critical and commercial success.[47][48][49]

In 2007, Jackson directed a short film entitled Crossing the Line, to test a new model of digital cinema camera, the Red One. The film takes place during World War I, and was shot in two days. "Crossing the Line" was shown at NAB 2007 (the USA National Association of Broadcasters). Clips of the film can be found at Reduser.net.[50]

Jackson completed an adaptation of Alice Sebold's bestseller, The Lovely Bones, which was released in the United States on 11 December 2009.[51] Jackson has said the film was a welcome relief from his larger-scale epics. The storyline's combination of fantasy aspects and themes of murder share some similarities with Heavenly Creatures. The film ended up receiving generally mixed reviews and middling box office returns yet earned Stanley Tucci an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination.[52][53]

Jackson's involvement in the making of a film version of The Hobbit has a long and chequered history. In November 2006, a letter from Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh stated that due to an ongoing legal dispute between Wingnut Films (Jackson's production company) and New Line Cinema, Jackson would not be directing the film.[54] New Line Cinema's head Robert Shaye commented that Jackson "...will never make any movie with New Line Cinema again while I'm still working at the company...".[55] This prompted an online call for a boycott of New Line Cinema,[56] and by August 2007 Shaye was trying to repair his working relationship.[57] On 18 December 2007, it was announced that Jackson and New Line Cinema had reached agreement to make two prequels, both based on The Hobbit, and to be released in 2012 and 2013 with Jackson as a writer and executive producer and Guillermo del Toro directing.[58][59]

In early 2010, del Toro dropped out due to production delays[60] and a month later Jackson was back in negotiations to direct The Hobbit;[61] and on 15 October he was finalised as the director[62][63]—with New Zealand confirmed as the location a couple of weeks later.[64]

The film started production on 20 March 2011. On 30 July 2012, Jackson announced on his Facebook page that the two planned Hobbit movies would be expanded into a trilogy. He wrote that the third film would not act as a bridge between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings films, but would continue to expand The Hobbit story by using material found in the Lord of the Rings Appendices.[65]

On 16 October 2018 Jackson's documentary film about the soldiers of the First World War, They Shall Not Grow Old, was premiered as the Special Presentation at the BFI London Film Festival, attended by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. The film was simultaneously screened in 2D and 3D at cinemas, schools and special venues across the United Kingdom. Attended by Jackson, the simulcast included a special post-screening Q&A with Jackson, hosted by film critic Mark Kermode.[66] The film was created using original footage from Imperial War Museums' extensive archive, much of it previously unseen, alongside BBC and IWM interviews with servicemen who fought in the conflict. The majority of the footage (save for the start and end sections) has been colourised, converted to 3D and transformed with modern production techniques to present detail never seen before.[66][67]

The film was co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW and Imperial War Museums in association with the BBC. Produced by WingNut Films and executive produced by House Productions, it was supported by the UK's National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.[66][68] Jackson himself, whose own grandfather fought in the war and to whom the film is co-dedicated, said before the screening: "This is not a story of the First World War, it is not a historical story, it may not even be entirely accurate but it's the memories of the men who fought – they're just giving their impressions of what it was like to be a soldier."[69]

Reviewing the film for The Guardian, critic Peter Bradshaw said:

To mark the centenary of the First World War's end, Peter Jackson has created a visually staggering thought experiment; an immersive deep-dive into what it was like for ordinary British soldiers on the western front. This he has done using state-of-the-art digital technology to restore flickery old black-and-white archive footage of the servicemen's life in training and in the trenches. He has colourised it, sharpened it, put it in 3D and, as well as using diaries and letters for narrative voiceover, he has used lip-readers to help dub in what the men are actually saying.

The effect is electrifying. The soldiers are returned to an eerie, hyperreal kind of life in front of our eyes, like ghosts or figures summoned up in a séance. The faces are unforgettable.[70]

The film was broadcast on BBC Two on 11 November 2018.[71]

In late December 2009, Jackson announced his interest in a film adaptation of the novel Mortal Engines.[72] In October 2016, Jackson stated that the film would be his next project, as producer and co-writer, once again alongside Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. The film was directed by his long-time collaborator Christian Rivers.[73][74] It stars Robert Sheehan, Hera Hilmar, Hugo Weaving, Jihae, Leila George, Ronan Raftery, and Stephen Lang. It premiered on 27 November 2018 in London,[75][76] received negative reviews and was a box-office bomb.[77]

Jackson was set to produce a remake of the 1955 film The Dam Busters, to be directed by longtime Weta designer Christian Rivers. Stephen Fry has written a screenplay.[78][79] Originally scheduled for filming by 2009,[80] the project has been postponed. However, Jackson still holds movie rights as of October 2017.[81]

Jackson and his newly formed studio Wingnut Interactive have worked on a project being developed by Microsoft Game Studios in collaboration with Bungie; the project is officially titled Halo: Chronicles but little else is known about its nature.

Jackson was set to produce a $128 million movie version of the science fiction video game series Halo to be developed and released by Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox. In October 2006, the film was postponed indefinitely when financial backers withdrew their support,[82][83] although it was never officially cancelled. In June 2008, Jackson commented that, "With upcoming developments (Halo: Chronicles), I wouldn't know when to expect a movie, and I'm the producer." Instead, Jackson worked with Halo's planned director Neill Blomkamp on science fiction project District 9, which proved a box office hit and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture.[84]

In 2006, Jackson also won the rights to a film adaptation of the fantasy novel series Temeraire, a novel written by Naomi Novik about dragons being used in combat in the Napoleonic Wars.[85] However, as of 24 February 2016, Novik confirmed during a Reddit AMA that the rights reverted to her, and that there are no current plans for any adaptations.[86]

Jackson at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International

Jackson was one of three producers on The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, directed by Steven Spielberg and released in 2011. He is officially credited as producer but before he began working on The Hobbit, helped Spielberg direct the film. Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis were cast due to their collaboration with Peter Jackson on King Kong and The Lord of the Rings. Spielberg also chose to work with Peter Jackson due to the impressive digital work on the Lord of the Rings films, and knew Peter Jackson's company Weta Digital would make his vision a reality. It received positive reviews and grossed $374 million at the box office.

In December 2011, Spielberg said that a sequel would be made.[87] Spielberg said that the Thompson detectives would "have a much bigger role". The sequel would be produced by Spielberg and directed by Jackson.[87] Kathleen Kennedy said the script might be done by February or March 2012 and motion-captured in summer 2012, so that the movie would be on track to be released by Christmas 2014 or mid-2015.[88] In February 2012, Spielberg said that a story outline for the sequel had been completed. In December 2012, Jackson said that the Tintin schedule was to shoot performance-capture in 2013, aiming for a release in 2015.[89] On 12 March 2013, Spielberg said, "Don't hold me to it, but we're hoping the film will come out around Christmas-time in 2015. We know which books we're making, we can't share that now but we're combining two books which were always intended to be combined by Herge."[90]

In December 2014, Peter Jackson said that the Tintin sequel would be made "at some point soon", although he intended to focus on directing two New Zealand films before that.[91] The following year, Anthony Horowitz, who was hired as the sequel's screenwriter even before the release of the first film,[92] stated that he was no longer working on the sequel, and was unsure if it was still being made.[93] In June 2016, Spielberg confirmed that the sequel was still in development, but Jackson is working on a secret project in the meantime.[94]

On 30 January 2019, the fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles' rooftop concert, which was the band's final performance, Jackson announced that his next directorial work would be a documentary film about the making of their final album Let It Be. In a process similar to his previous film They Shall Not Grow Old, the film is created around "55 hours of never-before-seen footage and 140 hours of audio made available to [Jackson's team]", which are "the only footage of any note that documents them at work in the studio". The film will use the techniques developed for They Shall Not Grow Old to transform the footage with modern production techniques, and seeks to display a new side of a period in the Beatles' history usually remembered as highly conflictual.[95][96][97] Most of the used footage was originally recorded for the 1970 Let It Be documentary.[98]

Clare Olssen and Jabez Olssen, respectively producer and editor of They Shall Not Grow Old, are returning for this new project, with Ken Kamins, Jeff Jones and Jonathan Clyde as executive producers. The film is also being made with "the full co-operation" of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the last two living Beatles, as well as John Lennon and George Harrison's widows Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison.[95][96][97]

In March 2020, Walt Disney Studios announced they had acquired the worldwide distribution rights to Jackson's documentary, now titled The Beatles: Get Back. It is set to be released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on August 27, 2021 in the US and Canada with a global release to follow.[99] The film will include the full 42-minute rooftop concert.[98]

Jackson is one of the lead actors in two of his films: in Bad Taste, he plays two characters named Derek and Robert, even engaging them both in a fight.[121] In the mockumentary Forgotten Silver, he plays himself.[122]

However, he appears in most films he directs,[123] mostly in cameos, just as director Alfred Hitchcock had done:[124][125][126]

• In Meet the Feebles, Jackson appears as an audience member disguised as one of the aliens from Bad Taste.[77]
• In Braindead, he is the mortician's assistant.[77]
• In Heavenly Creatures, he is the tramp who gets kissed by Juliet Hulme.
• In The Frighteners, Jackson is a biker bumped into by Frank Bannister.[77]
• In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Jackson plays a drunken, carrot-chomping citizen of Bree when the four hobbits are entering the town.[77]
• In The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, he plays a spear-throwing defender of Helm's Deep.[77]
• In The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King he is seen as the boatswain of a murderous corsair ship.[77] This character is seen very briefly in the theatrical version. In the extended version he is onscreen for a longer period and is accidentally killed by Legolas's "warning shot". A detailed action figure of Jackson was made of this character in the same line as the rest of the Lord of the Rings toys.
• Also in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: during the scene of Shelob's Lair, where Sam's hands (i.e. Jackson's) are seen entering the shot as Shelob is wrapping Frodo in webbing. This was due to Sean Astin's temporary absence, and Jackson wanted to progress the production of the scene as much as possible, even without the actor.[127]
• In his 2005 King Kong he appears as a biplane gunner attacking Kong in New York City, reprising the cameo which original King Kong filmmaker Merian C. Cooper made in the original 1933 film.[77]
• In The Lovely Bones, he appears as a customer in a camera store playing with a camera.[77]
• In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Jackson plays one of the dwarves escaping from Erebor after Smaug has attacked.[128]
• In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, he appears as a drunken, carrot-chomping citizen of Bree, much like his appearance in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.[129]
• At the end of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, when Bilbo Baggins restores the fallen portraits of his parents, Bungo Baggins and Belladonna Took, to the wall from which they had fallen or been removed, Jackson and his partner have cameos as Bungo and Belladonna, as the portraits were painted in their likeness.[130]

He has also made cameos in several films not directed by him. In the opening sequence of Hot Fuzz (2007), he played a demented man dressed as Father Christmas, who stabs Nicholas Angel (played by Simon Pegg) in the hand.[131]

Jackson's eldest son, Billy (born 1995), has made cameo appearances in almost every one of his father's films since his birth, namely The Frighteners, The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, King Kong, The Lovely Bones, and the third film of The Hobbit trilogy. His daughter, Katie (born 1996), appears in all the above films except The Frighteners. And partner Fran Walsh makes a short cameo in The Frighteners as a woman walking next to Cyrus and Stuar just prior the scene featuring their son Billy.[132]

Jackson had a cameo on the HBO show Entourage on 5 August 2007 episode, "Gary's Desk", in which he offers a business proposal to Eric Murphy, manager to the lead character, Vincent Chase.[133]

Jackson appears as himself in the 2013 Doctor Who 50th anniversary spoof The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, alongside Sir Ian McKellen.[134]

Jackson appears as himself in the 2019 Discovery show Savage Builds, Episode 7, Dogfight Derby.[135]

In the 2002 New Year Honours, Jackson was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to film.[142] In the 2010 New Year Honours, he was promoted to Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, also for services to film.[143] The investiture ceremony took place at Premier House in Wellington on 28 April 2010.[144][145]

In 2006, Jackson received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[146] His Golden Plate was presented by Awards Council member Steven Spielberg.[147]

In the 2012 Queen's Birthday and Diamond Jubilee Honours, Jackson was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand,[148][149][150] New Zealand's highest civilian honour.

Since 1994's Heavenly Creatures Peter Jackson's films have enjoyed success in the annual awards season, earning many nominations and winning several awards; The Frighteners being his only fictional directed effort since 1994 not to be nominated for an Academy Award. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the most successful trilogies of all time in terms of awards, winning more Academy Awards than the Francis Ford Coppola directed Godfather Trilogy, with 2003's The Return of the King winning in all 11 categories for which it was nominated including Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay. Jackson's films have fared extremely well in the technical categories as well as the major categories; all three Lord of the Rings pictures as well as King Kong won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in their respective years. In total Jackson's directed efforts have been the most awarded films at three separate Academy Award ceremonies, the 74th, 76th and 78th.