Peter Jackson

Born on October 31, 1961 in Pukerau Bay, a small coastal town in New Zealand, Peter Jackson is the only child of Bill and Joan, a married couple of English immigrants. When he was very young, a friend of his parents was dazzled by the passion that the boy put into the use of cameras, and the snapshots he took. She decided to give him a super 8 camera. She was unaware that she had created a monster. It was then that the young Jackson began to hook up with his friends to film his own stories in short film format.

From a very young age, Jackson was capable of inventing sophisticated special effects to hide his lack of budget. For example, in a short titled “World War Two”, shot as a teenager, he managed to make the gunshots believable by using a technique that consisted of drilling small holes in the celluloid, so that they looked authentic.

At the age of 9, he saw the film that would change his life, King Kong (1933) , which left him tremendously fascinated. “If I hadn’t seen it, maybe I wouldn’t be a director now,” he commented. Peter Jackson became passionate about fantastic cinema from a very young age, and an unconditional admirer of Ray Harryhausen , the master of “stop motion”. And of course he devoured the most significant literary works of the genre, such as the books of JRR Tolkien .

Jackson was clear that it was very difficult to become a filmmaker in New Zealand, and much more in the field of fantastic cinema, which was what he liked. Resigned, he looked for a job in the lithography department of a newspaper. But he did not give up his passion, and continued filming in an ‘amateur’ way, in his free time. That was how little by little, during the summer holidays and the long weekends, he filmed Bad Taste , starring his acquaintances. Since he didn’t have any more friends, he had to give up on including more characters, and ended up playing the already legendary Derek ‘the loser’ himself.

Despite its lack of means and its hooligan tone – it is a gore film, with extreme black humor – it undoubtedly showed that Jackson was destined to shoot great things. It came to be shown at the Cannes Festival, and was distributed in various countries, including Spain, quickly becoming a cult title for lovers of bloody cinema.

Turning professional, Jackson was able to quit lithography and focus on his career as a filmmaker. He launched The Delirious World of the Feebles , the worst film in his filmography, starring some characters indebted to the Muppets, but with a wild tone, and introducing sex and profanity. Despite some isolated finds, the film was very unfunny.

Next, Peter Jackson established himself as an “underground” author with the brutal film Braindead , which was on the Spanish billboards for a week with the delirious title Your mother has eaten my dog , but which achieved great popularity, about everything when it was edited on video. “He is crazy cool. He is full of ideas that clash a lot, but he is a very funny person, ”the Spanish actress Diana Peñalver , chosen by Jackson to play Paquita, an immigrant who in the original version insulted in her native language , told me personally . “She spent the day covered in artificial blood”, she explained, surprised to have been involved in such an unconventional filming.

Its bloody excesses distance the film from the majority of the public. But it completely ended the gore genre, since it is absolutely impossible to make a tape with more black humor, and more blood than this one. For the unconditional ones who accept the rules of the game, some sequences are anthological, like the one in which Lionel’s mother –the protagonist– loses an ear, which falls off in the custard. Impossible to eat custard again since then. The karate priest was also quite nice. In general, slapstick-style gags predominate, but exaggerating the violence.

After Braindead , Jackson had proven his talent but seemed destined to be a B-movie filmmaker relegated to minorities, as was by then Sam Raimi , another seasoned filmmaker in the genre, who had not yet directed Spider-Man . However, Jackson was so smart that instead of continuing to exploit the vein, he radically changed register.

If Braindead showed dozens of brutal murders, but with humor, and without stopping to explain the consequences, his next film, Heavenly Creatures , was going to be the opposite extreme. He was only going to show a murder, but this one was going to be so raw and realistic that he had to make the viewer’s hair stand on end. It was based on the true case of Juliet Hulme and Pauline Repier, two teenagers who created their own magical world, and shocked New Zealand public opinion when they killed one of their mothers in the 1950s. to history for being the first feature film by Kate Winslet , who dazzled audiences internationally with her talent.

That’s when Hollywood took notice of Peter Jackson. Director and producer Robert Zemeckis was looking for new talent to support. He contacted Jackson who agreed to work for him as long as he could not move from New Zealand. And not only for convenience, and for working with his own equipment, but Jackson offered Zemeckis terribly lower production costs, since the technicians charged less than in the United States.

That was how Grab Me Those Ghosts was born , still indebted to Jackson’s gore stage, but a little more softened, and which brought back Zemeckis’s favorite actor, Michael J. Fox , who had been relegated to oblivion, but who that same year, 1996, he also had a prominent role in Mars Attacks! by Tim Burton . 

It was Jackson himself who insisted on taking a book that he was passionate about, The Lord of the Rings , by JRR Tolkien, to the movies, a task that at that time seemed impossible, and which had also led to a failed adventure, when Ralph Bakshi filmed the animated version, but could never finish the second part, due to lack of success. This being the case, it seemed impossible to start up another adaptation again.

With his ideas, Jackson conquered the executives of New Line, although they tried to impose variations on the original work that he did not like at all. For example, they gave him the green light if he made the books into two parts, but he fought to the end to make three, one per book, and to be as faithful as possible to Tolkien.

The result was exciting from the outset, because since the first photos of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring appeared , Tolkien’s fans and the general public realized that they were facing a very special project. Jackson himself was in charge of converting the books into film scripts together with his wife, Fran Walsh , and Philippa Boyens , an expert in the work of the British writer. “What I like most about this profession is writing. Much more than directing. It’s wonderful to be able to write at home, on the sofa or in bed, in the cold mountains of New Zealand, in front of the heater, without still having to think about where the scene will be shot”, Jackson confessed.

Eleven Oscars were awarded to the latest installment, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King , in recognition of the trilogy as a whole. Jackson himself picked three, those related to the script, director and film, since he was also one of the producers.

Turned into the fashionable filmmaker of the moment, Jackson was able to make one of his dreams come true, shooting a remake of King Kong , the film that he had been passionate about since his childhood. Despite its excessive footage, there is no doubt that it has moments of great visual vigor.

Perhaps to recover from so many big-budget blockbusters, Jackson chose to shoot The Lovely Bones , an adaptation of Alice Sebold ‘s novel , titled in Spain ‘From my heaven’. Saoirse Ronan plays a murdered teenager who ends up in an intermediate world between heaven and earth.

Peter Jackson has also excelled in the field of production. He endorsed the short Valley of the Stereos , the funny story of a lover of peace and quiet, who lives in the middle of nature. The only house in the neighborhood is for sale, and ends up being bought by a loud fan of loud music… Jackson also supported as a producer the South African Neill Blomkamp , ​​author of District 9 , a film about marginalized aliens that has had a huge success.

With The True Story of Cinema , Jackson triumphed in the mockumentary arena. Co-directed by him with Costa Botes , Jackson himself appeared onscreen as narrator, explaining the exploits of Colin McKenzie, a New Zealand film pioneer who had launched impressive breakthroughs before David W. Griffith , but had been forgotten . . Wherever the film was broadcast, many people ended up convinced that Griffith had not been the great pioneer of the Seventh Art. One last prank by a filmmaker who, after all, comes from ‘hooligan’ cinema.

The filmmaker does not rest. He is preparing a film adaptation of the adventures of Tintin, one of the best-known characters in the cartoons, along with Steven Spielberg . While Spielberg directs the first part, Jackson will be responsible for the sequel. “In each new project I put the same enthusiasm as when I started shooting,” explains Jackson.