From a Derek to a King – The Rise of Peter Jackson

In the first of a new series of profiles looking at major modern directors, Dave Smith describes the career of the King Kong of the blockbuster, Peter Jackson.

Jackson was born in a small coast-side town in New Zealand in 1961. His interest in film started at the age of eight, when he was given his first movie camera. Inspired by his favorite film, King Kong, and with the help of family and friends, he made a number of short films including World War II and The Valley (1976) as a teenager.

In his early twenties, he started a short 10-minute film project that was to be entitled Roast of the Day. The movie soon grew to be his first feature length film, Bad Taste (1987). Filmed at weekends, again with family and friends as cast and crew, Bad Taste took four years to film. Jackson himself did nearly everything in the movie; he directed, produced, operated the camera, made the special effects and starred in it as Derek, and also as one of the aliens. Everything was filmed on a second-hand, $250 camera, Jackson initially bearing the cost of the film until, impressed with what they saw, the New Zealand Film Commission put up the money to complete it. Shown at the Cannes Film Festival, Bad Taste won a number of awards, as well as a lot of acclaim, making the film a cult classic.


After the success of Bad Taste, Jackson became recognized as a director, and started work on Meet the Feebles (1989), which also marked the start of his writing partnership with Fran Walsh (also his real-life partner). Meet the Feebles – whose tag line was 'From the creator of Bad Taste comes a movie with no taste at all!' - was an adult take on The Muppet Show . As well as directing and co-writing, Jackson also produced, made puppets and was a camera operator.

Jackson went back to his schlock horror roots for his next film Braindead (Dead Alive), (1992). It’s the story of Lionel, a mummy’s boy, who has to look after his evil, overbearing mother. After following Lionel on a date at the zoo, she gets bitten by a 'Rat Monkey' and dies. This, however, is not the answer to Lionel's prayers as she returns as a zombie, and proceeds to turn anyone she can bi te into a zombie. Lionel has more and more problems hiding the zombies from his girlfriend (Paquita) and the local community. The film climaxes with a fight with hundreds of zombies, during a party at Lionel's house. Braindead is billed as one of the bloodiest films ever, with a reported 300 litres of fake blood being used in the final scene alone. Jackson was also responsible for the stop-motion animation in the film.

In 1994, Jackson co-wrote a film called Jack Brown Genius. He was also the second unit director. Also in 1994, he returned to directing and co-writing with Heavenly Creatures, the true story of two girls whose close friendship and love of fantasy leads to them brutally killing one girl’s mother when she tries to end their relationship. The film was shot on location at many of the genuine locations where the events occurred. Heavenly Creatures was also the film that gave Kate Winslet her big break.

Next up, The Frighteners (1996), which was originally to be part of a Tales from the Crypt series, but producer Robert Zemeckis liked the script so much, it was decided to make it as a stand-alone film, rather than part of a series. The Frighteners stars Michael J. Fox as a psychic private detective who, with the help of a number of ghosts, gets tangled up in a mystery, as a number of the townsfolk start dying in strange circumstances. Helped by a local doctor and chased by an insane FBI agent, can he get to the bottom of the mystery, and stop what may be the spirit of Death?

This all brings us to the series of films that were to make Peter Jackson a household name, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), The Return of the King (2003). The films were shot back-to-back over a record 274 days in 16 months – exactly the same as the principle photography of Apocalypse Now. The films were a major step forward in the use of GGI. So much has been written about this trilogy that it seems destined to be remembered as one of the major works of its era.

Jackson had decided to have a break after the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but was lured back by the chance to direct King Kong . The 1933 version had been one of Jackson's influences as a child, and his version, although twice the length at just over three hours long, remains faithful and is a tribute to the original. King Kong also saw another giant step forward in the use of a CG character. Andy Serkis (Gollum in LOTR) had 132 sensors attached to his face so that his every facial expression could be captured and shown on King Kong's face. It is Serkis' performance that makes Kong real and allows the audience to believe in and feel for a 25-foot gorilla.

As for the future, Jackson's next project is an adaptation of the Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones, the story of a 14-year-old girl who is murdered by her neighbour. She tells the story from Heaven, showing the lives of the people around her and how they have changed, while attempting to get someone to find her lost body. Whether Jackson can turn this very different material into another blockbuster success is one of the most tantalising questions in modern film. But, for the moment, like Kong straddling the Empire State, he’s on top of the world.