Peter Jackson

Heavenly Creatures and Forgotten Silver

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 real-life 1950s Parker–Hulme murder case, in which two teenage girls murdered one of their mothers, inspired the film. It was Fran Walsh that persuaded him that these events had the makings of a movie; Jackson has been quoted saying that the film "only got made" because of her enthusiasm for the subject matter. The film's fame coincided with the New Zealand media tracking down the real-life Juliet Hulme, who wrote books under the name Anne Perry. Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet played Parker and Hulme, respectively. Heavenly Creatures was critically acclaimed and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards and made top ten of the year lists in Time, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The New Zealand Herald.

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 a fictitious 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. 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.

Hollywood, Wētā, and the Film Commission

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 Wētā Workshop, the visual effects company – born from the one-man contributions of George Port to Heavenly Creatures – with which Jackson is often associated.

Wētā, 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.

The Frighteners was regarded as a box office failure. 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". 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". 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.

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. In the Metro article Jackson criticised the Commission over funding decisions concerning a film he was hoping to executive produce, but refused to drop a client-confidentiality provision that would have allowed them to publicly reply to his criticisms.

The Lord of the Rings

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, and finally overcame a tight deadline by making a last-minute deal with New Line, which was keen on a trilogy.

Principal photography extended 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 received huge critical acclaim, winning all eleven Academy Awards 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.

King Kong

Universal Studios signed Jackson for a second time to remake the 1933 classic King Kong. The film was released on 14 December 2005 to critical acclaim and grossed around US$562 million worldwide. 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.

Crossing the Line

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.

The Lovely Bones

Jackson completed an adaptation of Alice Sebold's bestseller, The Lovely Bones, which was released in the United States on 11 December 2009. 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.

Tintin franchise

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 chose to collaborate with Peter Jackson due to his work on the Lord of the Rings series, and knew Peter Jackson's visual effects company Wētā 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 was planned, but this time he would be in a producing role, with Jackson as director. 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. 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. 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."

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. The following year, Anthony Horowitz, who was hired as the sequel's screenwriter even before the release of the first film, stated that he was no longer working on the sequel, and was unsure if it was still being made. In June 2016, Spielberg confirmed that the sequel was still in development, but Jackson is working on a secret project in the meantime.

The Hobbit

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. 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...". This prompted an online call for a boycott of New Line Cinema, and by August 2007 Shaye was trying to repair his working relationship. 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.

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

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.

Documentaries and Beatles-related works

On 16 October 2018, Jackson's documentary about the First World War, They Shall Not Grow Old, was premiered as the Special Presentation at the BFI London Film Festival and followed by a question-and-answer session hosted by English film critic Mark Kermode. 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.

Before the screening, Jackson said, "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."

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.

The film was broadcast on BBC Two on 11 November 2018 (the hundredth anniversary of the Armistice of World War I), earning acclaim for its restoration work, immersive atmosphere, and portrayal of war. To accompany the film, a special episode of the documentary series What Do Artists Do All Day?, which followed Peter Jackson making the film, aired the following day on BBC Four.

In October 2016, Jackson, who had announced his interest in a film adaptation of the novel Mortal Engines in 2009, 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. It stars Robert Sheehan, Hera Hilmar, Hugo Weaving, Jihae, Leila George, Ronan Raftery, and Stephen Lang. It premiered on 27 November 2018 in London, received negative reviews and was a box-office bomb.

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 about the making of their final album Let It Be. In a process similar to his previous documentary project They Shall Not Grow Old, this 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 documentary used 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. Most of the used footage was originally recorded for the 1970 Let It Be documentary.

Clare Olssen and Jabez Olssen, respectively producer and editor of They Shall Not Grow Old, returned for this new project, with Ken Kamins, Jeff Jones and Jonathan Clyde as executive producers. The project was 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. The film includes the full 42-minute last rooftop concert.

In March 2020, Walt Disney Studios announced they had acquired the worldwide distribution rights to Jackson's documentary, now titled The Beatles: Get Back (the name of a track featured on Let It Be, and the originally-planned name for the album). It was originally set to be released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on 27 August 2021 in the US and Canada with a subsequent global release to follow. In June 2021, it was announced that it would be released on Disney+ as a three-part documentary series on 25, 26 and 27 November 2021. The documentary was released to critical acclaim, and won five Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program for Jackson.

The "de-mixing" technology developed to isolate instruments and vocals from old audio recordings to achieve a better sound quality in Get Back would have an effect on Beatles records themselves: Revolver: Special Edition, a 2022 reissue of the band's 1966 album Revolver, would use the technology to improve the album's audio quality. Annie Zaleski of The Guardian, who gave Special Edition a five out of five stars rating, wrote that: "new details tease out deeper meanings in the songs. Now more prominent, the low-lit backing harmonies on 'Here, There and Everywhere' remake the tune as an old-fashioned rock'n'roll love song; the piano bending out of key on 'I Want to Tell You' mirrors the narrator's insecurity; and McCartney's booming walking bass on 'Taxman' illuminates the biting, cynical tone of Harrison's lyrics... Revolver still sounds so vibrant." It would eventually lead to the release on 2 November 2023 of "Now and Then", dubbed "the last Beatles song", which used the technology to salvage audio from a 1977 demo by Lennon and a failed 1995 attempt by the other three ex-Beatles to complete the song (Lennon having been murdered in 1980), together with newly recorded music by McCartney and Starr, to finally release the song over 55 years after it was first conceived. The short documentary film Now and Then – The Last Beatles Song, featuring Jackson, chronicled the making of the song. "Now and Then" received received widespread attention and acclaim upon release, winning a Grammy Award and being considered a worthy finale for the Beatles.

Jackson personally directed the "Now and Then" music video, using new footage of McCartney and Starr and using restored old footage similarly to Get Back to have all four Beatles visually on-screen. In an interview days before the song's release, Jackson claimed that he had originally been "very reluctant" when offered to direct the video, but that McCartney, Starr and Apple "didn't even wait for me to say no" before proceeding to send him footage for the video. I found myself swept along as they quickly addressed my concerns. Paul and Ringo shot footage of themselves performing and sent that to me." He stated that he made the video thinking of it as a short film rather than a music video. The video was met with a mixed response, with praise for its emotional weight but criticism for the inclusion of the dead Harrison and Lennon into more recent footage.

New Lord of the Rings series

In May 2024, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav confirmed that Jackson and his collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens would be producing a new Lord of the Rings film with the working title The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. The film is intended to be released in 2027, with Andy Serkis directing from a screenplay written by Walsh, Boyens, Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou. The Hunt for Gollum is the first slate in a new Lord of the Rings film series developed through Warner Bros. label New Line Cinema. In February 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery had signed a deal with the Embracer Group to produce a new series of Lord of the Rings live-action films. On 10 May, RNZ reported that Wellington would serve as the production hub for the new Lord of the Rings films.