The rise and rise of Peter Jackson

BY BARNEY MCDONALD

The first time I saw Peter Jackson on set directing The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the (now trim) film-maker was sat barefoot in a big, comfy armchair of dubious origin. He'd get up and move around, interacting with actors and crew, but before long he'd be back in the low, rounded chair, staring at his monitors, deep in thought.

During shooting of pick-ups for The Twin Towers and The Return of the King, I spent a week apiece with a veritable United Nations of international media, watching Jackson working on set and location, snatching moments to talk to him about his epic journey with the film. Always unflappable, ever affable, Jackson controlled his environment with understated and seemingly effortless ease, so much so that the armchair became a symbol for the man himself. Whenever he wasn't on set, the chair remained, motionless and serene, commanding respect on behalf of its master.

Always an unclipped beard or untucked shirt this side of dishevelled, Jackson never looked like a slovenly man in a La-Z-Boy, watching a movie. Rather, he was the man with a plan, intently focused on helping his people make his movie. Even in his most relaxed or fatigued moments, he emanated a quiet confidence and inner calm that defied logic. In fact, in all the times I've met and talked to Jackson, he's never appeared stressed or nonplussed. He's one of the nicest, most down-to-earth multimillionaire film-making geniuses you're ever likely to spend time with.

Maybe it's the chair. A hand-me-down from a set visit by Texas-based Ain't It Cool News website creator Harry Knowles, a rather large chap who also spent a week observing Jackson working on his famous trilogy, it was bought from a local second-hand shop. Often the most comfy piece of furniture on set, it served Jackson well during the gruelling 18-month The Lord of the Rings shoot. And freshly upholstered, it's just got him through months of production work on his adaptation of Alice Sebold's much-loved novel, The Lovely Bones, starring Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg and Susan Sarandon.

"It's my favourite director's chair," smiles Jackson. "It's my good luck chair."

Jackson recently swapped the familiarity of ye olde easy chair and the position it confers to occupy a different role to the one he's most readily known for. Although he's no stranger to producing his own work, Jackson has now produced just his second feature by another director, Neill Blomkamp's sci-fi action film, District 9. (The first was Tony Hiles' Jack Brown Genius in 1994, which won three trophies at the New Zealand Film and TV Awards.)

And once the scripts for The Hobbit, the two-part prequel to The Lord of the Rings, are written and approved by the studio, he'll again eschew his favourite chair to preside over another major production as producer.

It's all in a day's work for Jackson, who's come a long way from shooting his debut feature, Bad Taste, only on Sundays because he had a fulltime job and his cast all played soccer on Saturdays. And all in a day's work for a film-maker who's tenaciously manoeuvered himself into a powerful position in the industry.

"Producing District 9 wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be," he says. "I was a bit concerned I'd get frustrated. But I came to realise that my job was to get inside Neill's head and figure out his version of District 9 and not my version, then help him get it on the screen. I simply threw a bunch of ideas at him all the time and he'd take the ones he liked and say no to the ones he didn't."

Fresh from a hero's welcome at the San Diego Comic Convention in July, where he and Blomkamp debuted the movie and shared a panel discussion about their collaboration, Jackson has been juggling several projects for months. Not only has he been directing The Lovely Bones, which opens in December, and producing Blomkamp's film, set in Johannesburg and based on the latter's short Alive In Joburg, he's also back in writing mode with partner Fran Walsh and their The Lord of the Rings co-writer Philippa Boyens.

For Jackson, who's also been in negotiations to co-helm a series of Tintin movies with Steven Spielberg, it feels good to be back behind the scenes, working with his co-writers on creating other worlds and characters again.

"It's always been writing and creation of the story that I've based my film-making on," he says. "The writing is still very simple and very much a cottage thing. Fran and I live and work together and Philippa just lives in the house next door. We knocked the wall down that used to be between our houses, so she just wanders across the lawn in her slippers and dressing gown.

"Sometimes we stay in our pyjamas, writing, and don't even bother to get dressed," he chuckles. "It's having a bit of a laugh while sitting around the word processor and making up films. That's always the fun of it."

The bond between the trio is tight, so much so, both Jackson and Boyens had a contest to lose weight after completion of The Lord of the Rings. Jackson's transformation is miraculous, and I still struggle to equate the man I see in the media now to the cuddly, wind-swept Wellingtonian I gifted a copy of a bizarre 1970s Scandinavian concept album of JRRTolkien's trilogy during my week on set for The Return of the King in 2003. "Truly appalling," he says with a laugh. "I still have it."

Jackson is now one of the most dominant film-makers in the world. He generated more than a dozen Academy Awards and almost $3 billion at the box office with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, not to mention more than $500 million with his remake of King Kong. He has achieved so much since becoming a film-maker in 1976, including establishing production company Wingnut Films and Weta Studios, it's surprising Jackson still has the same unbridled enthusiasm for film that got him through his early years and occasionally pitted him against the New Zealand Film Commission.

"I enjoy it; I look forward to it," says Jackson. "If I did lose that, I'd find something else to do. I just love making movies and I always have. I love stories. My favourite part is actually the scriptwriting; the creation of the story. That's when it all comes together.

"But I still like directing because it's nice to see it through to the final stage."

In a few days, Jackson will hand over the first draft of part one of The Hobbit to Warner Brothers and New Line, the studio behind The Lord of the Rings whose founder famously declared Jackson "will never make any movie with New Line again while I'm still working for the company". (Robert Shaye resigned as chairman and CEO in February 2008 when Warner bought New Line.) With both instalments to be directed concurrently by Mexican Guillermo del Toro, who might appreciate the use of Jackson's easy chair, the Kiwi producer is starting to get a little envious of Del Toro.

"Writing the first part of The Hobbit has made me a little bit sorry that I'm not directing this one," admits Jackson.

"I hadn't felt that way until we started writing the scripts. Then, as we've been writing, I've been thinking it'll be a lot of fun to make these movies.

"The shooting of big films like this is a gruelling slog. Guillermo will be shooting for over a year, which is a long stretch. He thinks he's fully prepared, but there'll be a few things he'll find out along the way.

"I remember on The Lord of the Rings, the last week of shooting I was so exhausted I could barely stand up. Even looking back at some of the behind-the-scenes footage of when I'm on set, in the last few days my voice was almost gone."

To unwind, Jackson spends time on his 20-hectare Wairarapa property, bought for $5 million after completing The Lord of the Rings and substantially redeveloped. The property includes a mansion, lake and the interior of Bag End. His passion for World War I and II planes extends to owning The Vintage Aviator, a company that restores military aircraft from the era, and playing a bi-plane gunner as a cameo in King Kong.

"Gotta have a hobby," he jokes about the planes.

One of the elements sustaining Jackson's passion for film-making is his ability to foster emerging talent, such as Blomkamp, allowing him to let his actions speak louder than words. Firstly, a deal struck with the Film Commission will see Jackson heading a major government review of a funding agency he's often strongly criticised. Then there's his patronage of the country's blossoming 48Hours Furious film-making competition, for which he picks three wildcard entries each year, which shows his grassroots support of fledgling local film-makers.

And nurturing the talent of directors such as Blomkamp allows him to pass on knowledge, contacts and suggestions to film-makers whose ideas and talent he connects with.

"I've come to realise that there's an element of handing on the baton to the younger generation of film-makers," says Jackson. "If there's any opportunity to help people, I try to help them if I can."

Jackson's patronage of Blomkamp began when the South African-born director, who launched his film-making career in Canada after relocating there at the age of 18, was hired by Jackson to shoot the live action film version of video game phenomenon Halo. When funding fell through after months of pre-production work in New Zealand, Jackson encouraged Blomkamp to expand his six-and-a-half-minute short Alive In Joburg into a feature.

"You just feel heartbroken when projects fall over like that," admits Jackson. "It's just a personal emotional response because you've committed to something that exists in your imagination.

"Obviously it's not the most serious thing in the world. It doesn't affect people's health or wellbeing. It's just a movie, at the end of the day. But it's something that's existed in your imagination and as such it's very personal to you. It's like you live and breathe this movie. You feel like it's part of you because you're imagining every second of it.

"Whether it's us or Neill, you've been working on it for four or five months, having endless meetings, looking at designs, getting enthusiastic, because part of developing movies is that it's a lot of fun. You sit around and have laughs and get highly excited about the ideas you're working on. And if you don't, you should find something else to do.

"And that fundamental drive is, I think, at the heart of any film-maker."

It's certainly at the heart of Peter Jackson after 33 years as a film-maker. And counting.

District 9 is showing in cinemas; The Lovely Bones is scheduled to open on December 26.

- © Fairfax NZ News