Screaming ghost haunts Jackson

Sir Peter Jackson and wife Fran Walsh.

The Frighteners was Jackson's first dip into the afterlife.

Relevant offers

Celebrities

Paul McCartney gives up cannabis Cuba's dad to Cruise: 'Gay or not?' Houston's drug records sought Star claims Home and Away racism Robyn Malcolm lays it all bare Houston's room already re-occupied Can Paris Hilton save her image? Jamie Oliver uncovers treasure Rihanna urged to stay away from Brown Whitney death sparks rush for music

Sir Peter Jackson has put The Frighteners on audiences with spooky scenes from movies featuring the afterlife.

Now the Kiwi film-maker has revealed he's had his own ghostly encounters.

Jackson said he and wife Fran Walsh saw a spirit in their Wellington home.

"It was ... in an apartment that Fran had," Jackson said.

"And it was a real, genuine experience. One night I woke up and there was a figure in the room.

"She was really scary. Her face was like a silent scream. She glided across the room and disappeared into the wall."

When Jackson told Walsh of the apparition which he saw around 20 years ago, she asked: 'Was it the woman with a screaming face?'

"She had seen the same ghost two years earlier."

And Jackson added, referring to his latest movie The Lovely Bones: "So I do believe in some energy, a spirit or a soul, and there's a version of it in our latest film."

The Lovely Bones is based on Alice Sebold's best-selling novel about teenager Susie Salmon who, after being raped and murdered, watches from heaven as her family and friends go on with their lives while she comes to terms with her death. Jackson said the movie, with a cast including Hollywood A-listers Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Susan Sarandon, had been challenging to make.

"We wanted to portray heaven in a way that would help us to tell the story and the mundane version didn't help us with the narrative," he said.

"She [Susie] has to discover the truth about her murder and then move on in her afterlife. I would say this is the most difficult project I've taken on because the book is not set up to be easily made into a film.

"We did use dream imagery, and the different visions we see in the after-life represent Susie's emotional state."

The Lovely Bones was published a year after Jackson's mother, Joan, died and he said his mind was focused on mortality and what happens next.

"Death starts to become a fact of life and the book I found very emotional and very comforting. I find that the older that I get, the more I start to think about what happens when you die; you start to think about uncles and aunts that you've lost, some of which were a similar age to me and Fran now," he said.

Jackson first hit Hollywood with his 1996 comedy horror The Frighteners, about Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox), an architect who develops psychic abilities which allow him to see, hear, and communicate with ghosts.

He is working on big-budget movie Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn and he and Walsh are revising the script of The Hobbit.

- © Fairfax NZ News