Video Production Sydney: Looking for an ambitious project to test his directorial skills, in the mid-1990s Jackson latched on to the idea of making film versions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic trilogy of fantasy novels, The Lord of the Rings. An avid fan of the novels, Jackson said, “I read the book when I was 18 years old and thought then, ‘I can’t wait till the movie comes out.’ Twenty years later, no one had done it—so I got impatient.”
After winning the film rights in 1997, it took Jackson several years to find a film studio that shared his vision of three separate films all filmed at once on location in New Zealand. New Line Cinema finally agreed to finance the project on Jackson’s terms; after a year and a half of filming, The Fellowship of the Rings was released to widespread international popularity and critical acclaim in December 2001. The second film in the trilogy, The Two Towers, was released a year later in 2002, and the third installment, The Return of the King, followed in 2003.
The highest grossing film trilogy in history, with more than $2.9 billion in worldwide box office revenue, as well as one of the most acclaimed series of all time with 17 Academy Awards and 30 nominations, The Lord of the Rings established Peter Jackson as one of the world’s greatest directors. The Return of the King, widely considered the greatest fantasy film ever made, matched Titanic (1997) and Ben-Hur (1959) for the most Oscar wins by a single film with 11, including Best Director for Jackson.
Video Production Sydney: In the wake of the enormous success of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson fulfilled a childhood dream by remaking King Kong, the film that had so inspired him as a child. Released in 2005, King Kong was another box office smash. After nearly two decades of continuous work, Jackson took several years off from directing before returning to direct the 2009 film adaptation of Alice Sebold’s novel The Lovely Bones. He also signed up to work on the film adaptation of The Hobbit, Tolkien’s prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The story was also split up into a trilogy. The first film in the series, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, was released in 2012. The sequels, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, were released in 2013 and 2014, respectively.
Unlike The Lord of the Rings, Jackson and film critics alike were not happy with his work on The Hobbit, despite it being a blow out at the box office. In interviews Jackson admitted his incredibly strict time constraints enforced by the studios did not allow him to design the film the way he had wanted — (he spent years prepping for The Lord of the Rings).
Video Production Sydney: Peter Jackson Personal Life
Jackson married Fran Walsh, a screenwriter who had helped him gain contacts in the New Zealand film industry during the 1980s. Walsh co-wrote the screenplays for Heavenly Creatures and The Lovely Bones. They have two children, Billy and Katie.
As the director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson is one of the most popular and acclaimed film directors alive. He is the rare director who makes films that are both action-packed, special effects-laden blockbusters and high quality, critically acclaimed works of art. Jackson credits his enormous success to his tireless work ethic, obsessively working and reworking a film until the last possible moment. “There’s no such thing as perfection,” he says. “You’re never finished with a film. You run out of time.”
