Peter Jackson

• Born: October 31, 1961
• Place of Birth: Wellington, New Zealand

Peter Jackson is a New Zealand film director, producer, and screenwriter. He gained international fame for the awesome task of filming J. R. R. Tolkien's classic fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. Filmed entirely in New Zealand, the films were shot over the course of fourteen months and cost more than $270 million to produce. The films were released between 2001 and 2003 and helped establish a viable New Zealand film industry. Jackson won an Academy Award for best director for the final film in the trilogy, The Return of the King. In 2005, he won acclaim for his remake of the 1933 movie King Kong, which further established him as a mainstream filmmaker. In the early 2010s, Jackson once again took on a Tolkien project, directing the three films in the Hobbit Trilogy. 

Early Life

Peter Jackson was born on October 31, 1961, in Wellington, New Zealand. He was the only child of Bill and Joan Jackson. He grew up in Pukerua Bay, a small town near Wellington. Jackson discovered his interest in filmmaking while he was a child. When he was eight, a friend of the family gave him a Super 8 cine-camera, which Jackson soon began using. By the time he was ten, he was recording short movies. He also experimented with special effects, which later became a trademark of his professional movies. He left school at the age of seventeen with the hope of getting a job in the New Zealand film industry. When his efforts were unsuccessful, he took a job at a Wellington newspaper and worked as an apprentice to a photoengraver.

When he was twenty-two, Jackson made the film Roast of the Day. This ten-minute movie is a science-fiction comedy about flesh-eating aliens. He had so many ideas for the movie that he decided to extend it. For the next four years, he worked on creating this first full-length movie. He enlisted his friends as actors and acted in the movie himself. During the week, he continued to work at his job at the newspaper. Near the end of the project, he realized he would not have enough money to edit all of the film he had recorded, so he applied to the New Zealand Film Commission for financial assistance. (This government agency promotes and encourages New Zealand filmmakers.) He received enough money to finish his movie, which he titled Bad Taste (1987).

Jim Booth, a director in the New Zealand Film Commission, persuaded Jackson to enter the film in the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, where it won several awards. Film rights were sold to several countries, and Jackson's career as a professional filmmaker was launched.

Career

After his success at the Cannes Film Festival, the New Zealand Film Commission agreed to fund Jackson as a filmmaker. Jackson's first movies as a professional filmmaker continued in the same genre as Bad Taste, which had become a cult classic. Oftentimes called "splatstick" horror films, his movies had an excess of blood, severed body parts, and gory scenes. His first professional movie was Meet the Feebles (1989), a dark comedy featuring puppets. This was followed in 1992 by Braindead, which was released as Dead Alive in the United States. In Braindead, a woman turns into a zombie after being bitten by a rabid monkey.

In 1993, Jackson and several other New Zealand filmmakers founded Weta Workshop, a visual effects and film production company. It later became one of the world's leading special effects companies.

Jackson's next movie after Braindead was Heavenly Creatures (1994). He co-wrote the screenplay for the movie with his partner, Frances Walsh. The film is based on the true story of two fifteen-year-old friends, Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker, who killed Pauline's mother in the 1950s. The movie received a nomination for an Academy Award for best original screenplay for Jackson and Walsh and won several film festival awards. It also helped to launch the careers of the actors who played Juliet (Kate Winslet) and Pauline (Melanie Lynskey).

In 1995, Jackson and Costa Botes, a fellow New Zealand screenwriter and director, co-wrote and co-directed the mock documentary Forgotten Silver. This was followed by Jackson's first major film for a Hollywood studio, The Frighteners, in 1996. Filmed in New Zealand, the movie starred Michael J. Fox as a psychic private investigator.

The Lord of the Rings

After his success with movies other than horror comedies, Jackson turned his attention to fantasy epics. He, Walsh, and writer Phillipa Boyens wrote screenplays based on The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien. New Line Cinema agreed to produce the movie project. Unlike his amateur films, which Jackson produced at low cost, the budget for The Lord of the Rings trilogy was more than $270 million. Jackson filmed the three films in succession at different locations in New Zealand.

The Fellowship of the Rings was released in 2001, The Two Towers in 2002, and The Return of the King in 2003. All three movies were highly acclaimed and won numerous awards. The Fellowship of the Ring was nominated for thirteen Academy Awards, and won four (for visual effects, cinematography, music, and makeup). Its sequel, The Two Towers, won two Academy Awards (for visual effects and sound editing). The final film in the trilogy, The Return of the King, won nine Academy awards. Of these, Jackson won three Oscars: best director, best picture (which he shared with Walsh), and best adapted screenplay (which he shared with Walsh and Boyens). Together, all three movies have made over $4 billion in ticket, DVD, and merchandise sales.

In 2005, Jackson directed a remake of the 1933 film King Kong. He has claimed that watching the film as a child inspired his interest in filmmaking. Jackson's King Kong won three Academy awards for its visual effects, sound mixing, and sound editing.

In 2008, it was announced that Jackson would produce a film version of Tolkien's The Hobbit, with Guillermo del Toro initially set to direct and Weta handling the visual effects and production work. After Jackson released the film The Lovely Bones, an adaptation of the book by Alice Sebold, in 2009, he was compelled to take over as director for the adaptations of The Hobbit as del Toro had departed the project. Splitting the story into three parts, he released The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in 2012, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in 2013, and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in 2014. According to reports, the making of the films did not go according to plan, and ultimately, they were not reviewed as favorably as his Lord of the Rings series. Still, having additionally been made a member of the Order of New Zealand in 2012, he went on to produce and co-write the fantasy-adventure feature Mortal Engines, based on the novel of the same name by Philip Reeve, as well as direct and produce the World War I documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, both released in 2018. In 2021, Jackson's documentary, The Beatles: Get Back (2021), received international praise for its account of the band's final performance. In the same year, the director became a billionaire after selling $1.6 billion in Unity Software stock.

In the 2020s, Jackson decided to renter the world of Middle Earth, this time as executive producer of two films based on Tolkien’s works. The first was the 2024 animated film, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, based on the lore of the horse lords of the kingdom of Rohan, a realm first seen in 2002’s The Two Towers film. Jackson was also involved as executive producer on a planned 2026 film, The Hunt for Gollum, a live-action adaptation of background material from the Lord of the Rings novels.

Personal & Family Life

Jackson met partner Fran Walsh in 1986. She was working as a screenwriter for television programs when Jackson teamed with her and writer Stephen Sinclair in writing screenplays for Meet the Feebles and several other movies and plays. Eventually Sinclair left to follow other pursuits, but Walsh and Jackson remained writing partners. By the early 1990s, Walsh and Jackson were personal as well as professional partners. Walsh has collaborated on nearly all of Jackson's films as a screenwriter, director, and/or producer.

Jackson and Walsh have two children: Billy, born in 1995, and Katie, born in 1996. Both children have appeared in several of their parents' movies. Billy first appeared in 1996's The Frighteners as the baby in a bouncer. Billie and Katie also appeared in all of the Lord of the Rings movies. In the first movie, they played the role of Hobbit children. In the second installment, they each played refugee children of Rohan. In the final sequel, they portrayed children in Gondor. Billie and Katie had roles as New York children in the movie King Kong, as well.

Bibliography

"Peter Jackson." IMDb, 2024, www.imdb.com/name/nm0001392/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.

Rashid, Brian. "A Conversation with 'Lord of the Rings' Director Peter Jackson." Forbes, 20 Sept. 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/brianrashid/2016/09/20/an-afternoon-with-peter-jackson-director-of-lord-of-the-rings/?sh=16fb84f41b88. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.

"Sir Peter Jackson." Academy of Achievement, 17 Feb. 2021, achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.

Taylor, Drew. “Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh Join Animated ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’." The Wrap, 11 June 2024, www.thewrap.com/lord-of-the-rings-war-of-rohirrim-peter-jackson-animated-footage/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.

Vorel, Jim. "Peter Jackson's LOTR Was an Improbable Miracle, and We're Lucky to Have It." Paste, 17 Dec 2021, www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2020/03/peter-jacksons-lotr-was-an-improbable-miracle-and.html. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.