Lovely Bones release in Oscar season

Peter Jackson has revealed that the release of his film The Lovely Bones was delayed so it would have a better chance of being considered for the Oscars.

The film was to have been released in March but Hollywood studio Paramount postponed release until December.

"When we showed them the cut late last year, they decided to delay the release until December to plop it into the "awards season", which is a nice vote of confidence in the movie," Jackson said in magazine On Film.

The delay meant he had more time to work on the final cut and spend more time on visual effects. He wished he had had the same luxury with his last film, King Kong. "I wish we had this time on King Kong, which we badly wanted to reduce by 20 minutes, but we ran out of time before figuring out how to do it," he said.

"Sometimes you wish you could pop the movie on a shelf for three months and come back to it with fresh eyes."

While King Kong, released in 2005, made a respectable US$550 million (NZ$860m) at the box office, it did not perform as well as hoped. Some believed it was too long at more than three hours.

In the interview, Jackson also slammed the Film Commission, which he said "made a big mistake" by creating a producer-led film industry.

This month the Government appointed Jackson and Australian Film, Television and Radio School head David Court to undertake a review of the commission.

"This 'producer-led' industry thing is about 10 years old but haven't the last 10 years been the most disappointing in our 30-year-old modern film industry?

"The film-making talent of New Zealand does not reside in the offices of its `producers' it's to be found in the hearts and minds of its writers and directors," he said.

Jackson also updated developments in his other film projects.

He said Dambusters, announced in 2006, would be made but was "waiting for me".

"I need to polish a draft of the script, and I've been too busy. Fortunately, there's no ticking clock, but that has meant that it's been held up. I'll get my draft done soon, and will get it, ahem, off the ground."

Jackson said while Steven Spielberg directed the first Tintin film in Los Angeles, he was helping "beef up" some of the chase scenes and was working on post production at Weta Digital in Wellington.

Jackson said he would start work as the director of the second Tintin film about a year from now. He and Spielberg were also still open to co-directing the third Tintin film, he said.

Jackson is an executive producer and co-writer of The Hobbit. He said shooting was scheduled to begin in March next year. Despite rumours, the two-part film, directed by Mexican film-maker Guillermo del Toro, would not be 3D.

- © Fairfax NZ News