Sir Peter Jackson is a world-acclaimed director and film producer of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and many other movies.
Early Childhood
Peter Robert Jackson was born on the thirty-first of October, nineteen-sixty-one, in Pukerua Bay, just about thirty kilometres from Wellington. When he was eight years of age, his parents, Joan and Willian Jackson, bought an eight-millimetre movie camera, and Jackson used it to make short films. Later, he would buy a used 16 millimetre camera, and start another short film, which would develop, with a grant from the New Zealand Film Commission, into a full-on movie. Bad Taste was released in nineteen-eighty-seven. It was only when he saw King Kong (1933), that he became more interested in film-making.
Education
Jackson went to Kāpiti college. His classmate described him as “Wearing a trench coat so much it was almost religious.” Jackson juggled school with movie making, as he made numerous short films. Jackson never had any formal training in the film industry, not even when he was older. Jackson left high school at the age of seventeen, to pursue his interests in the film industry.
Movies
Jackson’s first proper movie was Bad Taste (1997), a movie in which government agents from America discover that aliens are capturing New Zealanders for an intergalactic restaurant. This sparked Jackson’s career, with Meet the Feebles coming out just two years later. In nineteen-ninety-three, with Richard Taylor and Jamie Shelkirk, Jackson created Wēta Digital. Its first project was Heavenly Creatures, a movie based on a real-life case in Christchurch where two friends murdered one of the friend’s mother. Peter Jackson would go on to sell Wēta Digital to Unity Software, and direct numerous films, of which included a remake of King Kong, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
Jackson once said in an interview about the Lord of the Rings: “I read the book and thought, ‘This is great’. I then waited twenty years. So I got impatient” Jackson wanted to direct The Lord of the Rings, but first he had to obtain the rights to make the movie, which were owned by producer Saul Zaentz. It was pretty simple from there, except for one thing. If the first Lord of the Rings movie was successful, the cast would demand higher salaries, so Jackson decided to film all three trilogies at once. If the movies didn’t do well, Jackson would lose a lot of money, but if otherwise, Jackson’s reputation would be established. Lord of the Rings was a hit at the box office, earning Jackson $10 million from each film. Lord of the Rings grossed over $2.9 billion worldwide, with The Hobbit trilogy, filmed later from two-thousand-and-eleven to two-thousand-and-twelve, grossing $2.93 billion.
After The Hobbit
Jackson continued to direct movies, and produced Mortal Engines.
Here are some of his post-two-thousand-and-fourteen films:
The Beatles: Now and then
They Shall Not grow old
(And even though it was created before The Hobbit) The Adventures of Tintin: The secret of the Unicorn
Conclusion
Peter Jackson was knighted, becoming Sir Peter Jackson, by the Governor-General of New Zealand. He has won three Academy Awards, three BAFTAs, four Saturn Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe along many other awards. Jackson is a truly inspiring man who has revolutionised young directors and the New Zealand Film industry.