Peter Jackson Biography

Brought up at a time when there was only one black and white television channel in New Zealand, the shy, solitary boy was first drawn into the world of film by a desire to create special effects. Inspired by the realisation that he could emulate his favourite programme, ‘Thunderbirds’, using his Matchbox toys, Jackson started making movies in order to be able to show off his home-made models.

Jackson’s first attempt at filmmaking was a remake of ‘King Kong’ (1933), at the age of 12. Using a Super-8 camera given to his parents by a friend, a little model of Kong created from rubber and wire, and some of his mother’s fur coat, the imaginative youngster tried to recreate the “wonderful blend of escapism and adventure and mystery and romance" which had first inspired him when he first saw ‘King Kong’ at the age of 9. His passion for the story of Kong never faded, culminating in the extraordinary completion of a childhood dream when, as an adult, he was able to finally remake the 1933 classic in his own style.

With special effects as his priority, writing and directing only grew on Jackson as a result of wanting his models to come to life through plot. Realising that the life of a special effects artist would require him to adhere to other peoples’ vision rather than his own, Jackson expanded his skills set. With his heart set on breaking into the film industry, the ambitious youth began making movies.

In 1983, after saving up for and purchasing a 16mm Bolex camera, Jackson began making what he intended to be a short film called ‘Roast of the Day’. Over the course of the four years Jackson spent his weekends making what would eventually be renamed ‘Bad Taste’ (1987), the 90-minute cult classic that was his directorial debut. Despite having no formal training in film-making, Jackson ensured that he had full control of his first feature film by conducting every aspect of its production. Not only did the talented 22-year-old create the special effects, he also directed, produced, wrote, edited and photographed the 1987 slapstick horror, in which the lead character, Derek, played by Jackson himself, leads a cast of misfit characters in fighting off a group of aliens who come to Earth with the intention of harvesting humans as the main ingredient of their fast-food empire.
 

Lacking the multi-million dollar budgets he would later play with, he grew adept at improvisation, enlisting friends, colleagues at Wellington Newspapers Ltd. and family to act in the movie. Always a special effects fanatic, he grasped the opportunity to indulge his passion, using clever camera tricks and household objects such as yoghurt and green food colouring to create absurdly gory scenes.

Jackson’s effort caught the attention of the executive director of the New Zealand Film Commission, Jim Booth. Booth’s conviction in the director’s talent was so great that he convinced the Commission to fund the remainder of the project, allowing the formerly struggling artist to leave his full time job to finish the film. Booth would also leave the Commission to become Jackson’s producer. ‘Bad Taste’ was finally unleashed at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1987, where it quickly gained a following and sold in 12 countries.

Even during the filming of ‘Bad Taste’, Jackson was always looking ahead to his next project. He provided props for the series, ‘Worzel Gummidge Down Under’. It was in the course of delivering these props that Jackson met his future partner and fellow writer, Fran Walsh, in the mid-eighties. He described how the “incredible, strikingly beautiful girl” caught his eye when he saw her taking script notes on the set. The two writers quickly became friends and Walsh helped Jackson finish ‘Bad Taste’ before they started working together on Jackson’s next project, the inimitable ‘Meet the Feebles’ (1989).

Perhaps most aptly described as “Muppets go sleaze”, the satire follows a theatre troupe of puppets as they try to become rich by gaining national syndication for their show. With its extremely adult themes of sex, violence and suicide, and sub-plots such as a paternity dispute over an elephant-chicken baby, ‘Meet the Feebles’ marked a continuation of the emerging auteur’s fixation with the grotesque.

Jackson enhanced his reputation as a master of the splatter genre in 1992 with the release of ‘Braindead’, originally written as a play by Stephen Sinclair. The extent of gore in the piece has meant that it reportedly boasts the dubious accolade of holding the world-record for the most fake blood used in a single movie, as it tells the story of a young man who tries to hide the fact that his overbearing mother has become a zombie by hiding her, and the other zombies she creates, at her house.

Whilst the film may be seen as a pure comedy-horror, Jackson interpreted it as a parody of the hidden lives of New Zealanders, an exaggeration of the idea that one never knows what goes on behind closed doors. Like ‘Meet the Feebles’ before it, ‘Braindead’ was released with little fanfare, but won a number of New Zealand Film Awards and later achieved cult status.
 

It was in fact a film of a completely different ilk that first gained Jackson the attention of both Hollywood and the wider public. Fascinated by the little-known story of the New Zealand matricide of Honora Rieper, known as the Parker-Hulme murder, Walsh convinced Jackson it should be the subject of his next endeavour. Despite initial reservations about chronicling what he perceived to be a grim and depressing tale, Jackson relented as he learned more about how two young girls, Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme, murdered Pauline’s mother. The result was ‘Heavenly Creatures’ (1994). It was at this time that Jackson joined forces with Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger to transform a little-known company called RT Effects into the now four-time Academy Award winning special effects warehouse, WETA.

Whilst this adaptation of a true story grossed a modest $3 million at the box office, the film earned international acclaim with Jackson’s first Academy Award for Best Screenplay as well as a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. WETA got its reward with a New Zealand Film Award for Best Contribution to Design. It also marked the debut of actress Kate Winslet, whose performance as Juliet Hulme led to her being hailed as Britain's brightest new talent.

Jackson’s personal life also flourished at this time, as his relationship with Walsh blossomed into a romantic one. The couple welcomed their son, Billy, into the world in 1995. That year also marked the beginnings of ‘The Frighteners’ (1996), starring Michael J Fox. Jackson had originally casually pitched the idea for this ghost story with a twist to Robert Zemeckis upon hearing that the ‘Forrest Gump’ (1994) director was looking to make a film of this genre.

Jackson’s idea was about a conman who uses his ability to see ghosts to scare people so as to be employed as a ‘ghost buster’ of sorts. Much to his disappointment, due to scheduling conflicts with the Stallone film, ‘Daylight’ (1996), ‘The Frighteners’ found its way into cinema in July 1996 rather than its planned release on his birthday. Jackson felt that the midsummer opening undermined its tone and, together with its American ‘R’ rating (rather than the 13 rating for which he lobbied) contributed to its disappointing profits.

Jackson would continue to struggle in the coming year. Despite the fact that 1996 brought with it the birth of his and Walsh’s second child, Katie, it also saw the cancellation of his second attempt to make ‘King Kong’. However, undeterred by his mixed fortunes, Jackson turned his attention to the works of JRR Tolkien and the trilogy that would make him a household name.
 

The filming of ‘Lord of the Rings’ began in October 1999, but had been preceded by a four-year battle as to how many films the adaptation would comprise of. It was the intervention of and subsequent purchase by studio New Line Cinema that meant that three instalments would be made. Satisfied that his creation could now pay a fitting tribute to Tolkien’s works, and desperate to start production, Jackson returned to New Zealand to begin his mammoth task.

In a record-breaking move, all three films were shot at one go. The size of the endeavour is hard to comprehend. Story-boarding started in 1997, and the last reel was shot in December 2000, Jackson’s labour of love that spanned four years. Jackson had to balance shooting with the schedules of his actors, especially the big names like Sir Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett. Scouring his beloved New Zealand for suitable shooting locations was made harder by Jackson’s insistence on keeping true to his conception of Tolkien’s Middle Earth – the viewer is rewarded with a multitude of aesthetically rich and geographically different landscapes. Combining multiple shooting techniques, action sequences, vast amounts of CGI, with a multinational cast and crew, almost 19 000 costumes, props, and sets – this was a tour de force in management that says as much about Jackson’s organisational and planning capabilities as it does about his artistic integrity and technical and directorial ability.

The first instalment, entitled ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ (2001) grossed a total of $871,368,364 and received the award for Best Film at the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAS) as well as a near-record 13 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. It won four, Best Cinematography, Best Effects (Visual Effects), Best Makeup, and Best Music (Original Score). Jackson himself, who, according to his cast had “more energy than a barrel of monkeys”, was also honoured with the nomination for Best Director. The next chapter of the story, ‘The Two Towers’, won similar acclaim when it was released in December 2002. The visual effects and sound editing were both acknowledged with Academy Awards.

The climax came when the final instalment, ‘Return of the King’ hit screens on 17 December 2003, with takings exceeding $1 billion helping it become one of the top grossing films of all time. Critics welcomed Jackson’s finale to the epic as “one of the great achievements in film history” and it achieved numerous awards including a clean sweep of all 11 Oscars for which it was nominated. The last one of these to be announced was the elusive Best Director accolade and the proud New Zealander took the opportunity to pay tribute to his homeland in his acceptance speech.

However, with success came tragedy. Jackson lost both of his parents during production of the blockbuster, his mother dying of cancer just three days before the first film’s release. Devastated by the loss, Jackson and Walsh later donated $311,000 towards the University of California's programme on stem cell research to set up the Bill and Joan Jackson Scholars’ Fund.
 

Controversy also followed in 2005, as Jackson sued New Line over its handling of the profits of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’, claiming fraud by the studio had led to him being severely underpaid. Dubbed “The Lawsuit of the Rings”, Jackson challenged the core of the remuneration structure in Hollywood. The claim was settled in December 2007, and resolving his differences with the studio, with the combined power of New Line and Universal, the eternal nine year-old finally achieved his ultimate goal of making ‘King Kong’ (2005).

With the success of LOTR the director gained carte blanche – the 2005 adaptation of ‘King Kong’ boasted a cast that included Naomi Watts, Jack Black and Adrien Brody. Jackson also chose Andy Serkis, who had played the iconic Gollum, to play Kong. Unable to contain his excitement, the visionary director’s final version runs for an incredible 3 hours and 8 minutes.

Despite an unremarkable $50.1 million opening weekend, word soon spread and Jackson’s reworking of the love story between a giant ape and a struggling actress secured Jackson yet another credit in the top 50 grossing films of all time. The Times hailed the film as ‘fabulous’ and Jackson’s special effects once again reigned supreme with four wins at the 78th Academy Awards.

With his childhood mission complete and exhausted from the decades he surrendered to his passion, one might have expected Jackson to retreat. However, the hard-working auteur never relented and went on help create the 2007 video game ‘Halo’. An adaptation of Alice Sebold’s ‘The Lovely Bones’, starring Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg and Susan Sarandon, followed in 2009, with the same year also seeing the release of ‘District 9’, which he produced.

Jackson is due to return with an adaptation of Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’, a film that has been mired in controversy for a number of years. He was collaborating with fellow director and fantasy fanatic Guillermo del Toro on the project, but the latter left the project in 2010, despite having put in over two years of pre-production work.

Following the departure, Jackson signed on as producer, co-writer and director of the planned two-part film, which is based on the 1937 novel of the same name and is scheduled for filming in New Zealand. The film has a planned 2012 release date. He also collaborated with Steven Spielberg on ‘The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn’, which hits cinemas in 2011.

Despite his success in the world of fantasy, the visionary director who started his career in the world of vampires and gore, longs to return to his roots. Jackson has said that he plans to make more zombie movies in future. Bring on the splatter.