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Peter Jackson (Director)
-Peter Jackson was born in a small
coast-side town in New Zealand in 1961. When his
parents bought their first super 8 movie camera, the then
eight-year-old Peter instantly grabbed the thing to start
recording his own movies, which he made with his friends.
They were usually short, but they already had the
spectacular trademark that would make Jackson famous:
impressive special effects, made at a very low cost.
- When
Jackson was 22, he embarked on a
moviemaking-adventure that would change his life. This
film, Bad Taste (1987), was begun as any other Jackson
film, in an amateuristic style, at a low budget and using
friends and local people to star in his film. Jackson himself
did nearly everything in the movie, he directed, produced,
filmed and starred in it, in a number of roles, amongst
them that of the hero, Derek. And everything was filmed
on a second-hand, $250 camera.
It took Jackson four years to complete the movie than eventually became
a cult-classic. A friend of Jackson who was working in
the movie industry convinced him the film had commercial
prospects and arranged for it to be shown at the Cannes
film festival, where it won a lot of acclaim, as well as a
number of prizes. The movie soon became a hit because
of its bizarre humor and overdose of special-effects, some
realistic, some hilarious.
After the success of Bad Taste, Jackson became
recognized as a director and the door to fame and fortune
was opened. His notoriety was established after his first professionally
made movie, Braindead (1992), became a success.
- In 1995 the idea of bringing Tolkien's works to film was born. Jackson in conjunction with Saul Zaentz
who owned the rights to the books realized that for the project to be a success it would require
a trilogy of films. Miramax Films for whom Zaentz was working for at the time was unwilling.
New Line Cinema agreed to fund a trilogy. With a budget of $300 million dollars
and another $100 million in promotion, these films will set a new standard of movie making..
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