Peter Jackson was nine years old when he decided to remake King Kong, the 1933 classic that would become his lifelong obsession, using a Super 8 cine-camera gifted to his family and a collection of stop-motion models he crafted himself. Born on the 31st of October 1961 in Wellington, New Zealand, Jackson grew up in the northern suburb of Pukerua Bay with parents who were English immigrants, Joan and William Jackson. While other children played sports, Jackson spent his time making short films with friends, including a World War II epic called The Dwarf Patrol and a James Bond spoof named Coldfinger. His most notable early work, a 20-minute short called The Valley, won him a special prize for its innovative use of pinholes in the film to simulate gunshots. He attended Kāpiti College, where he wore a duffel coat with an obsession verging on religious, and showed no interest in athletics. Without formal training, he taught himself editing, visual effects, and make-up through trial and error, eventually leaving school at 16 to work as a photo-engraver for The Evening Post newspaper. For seven years, he lived at home to save money, buying a 16mm camera after two years and beginning to shoot the film that would become his debut feature, Bad Taste.
Splatter, Satire, and The Murderous Girls
Jackson's first feature film, Bad Taste, released in 1987, was a haphazard splatter comedy about aliens turning humans into food, shot on weekends while he worked full-time and featuring many of his friends acting for free. The film included a famous scene where Jackson fought himself on top of a cliff, showcasing his dual role as director and actor. His next film, Meet the Feebles, released in 1989, was a black, satirical, and savage comedy that went weeks over budget and alienated many viewers. It was during this period that Jackson began collaborating with Fran Walsh, who would later become his life partner and co-writer on nearly all his films. The real turning point came with Heavenly Creatures, released in 1994, which dramatized the true story of the Parker-Hulme murder case from the 1950s, where two teenage girls killed one of their mothers. Walsh persuaded Jackson that the story had the makings of a movie, and the film starred Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet as the teenage girls. Heavenly Creatures was critically acclaimed, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and brought Jackson to mainstream prominence. The following year, he co-directed the mockumentary Forgotten Silver with Costa Botes, which told the story of a fictitious New Zealand film pioneer named Colin McKenzie, tricking many viewers into believing the story was real and sparking outrage when the truth was revealed.The Hobbit That Became Three
Jackson's journey into Hollywood began with The Frighteners, a comedy-horror film released in 1996 that was a box office failure and drew criticism from Roger Ebert, who said it looked more like a demo reel than a movie. Despite this, the film helped establish Weta Workshop, the visual effects company that grew from George Port's one-man contributions on Heavenly Creatures into a major force in digital and physical effects. Jackson's career took a massive leap when he won the rights to film J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in 1997, initially working with Miramax before a last-minute deal with New Line Cinema allowed him to produce a trilogy. Principal photography ran from the 11th of October 1999 to the 22nd of December 2000, with extensive location filming across New Zealand. The trilogy became a global phenomenon, with The Return of the King winning all eleven Academy Awards it was nominated for, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The success of the trilogy sent Jackson's popularity soaring, but it also marked a period of tension with the New Zealand Film Commission, which had previously considered firing him from Meet the Feebles. In 2005, he remade King Kong, which grossed around US$562 million worldwide, and collaborated with game designer Michel Ancel to create a video game adaptation. The Hobbit project had a long and chequered history, with Guillermo del Toro initially set to direct before dropping out in 2010. Jackson eventually took over as director, and in 2012, he announced that the two planned Hobbit movies would be expanded into a trilogy, using material from the Lord of the Rings Appendices to expand the story.