Film director and screenwriter
Born October 31, 1961, in Pukerua Bay, North Island, New Zealand; son of Bill (a civil servant) and Joan Jackson; companion of Frances Walsh; children: Billy, Katie.
Agent —United Talent Agency, 9560 Wilshire Blvd., #500, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. Home —Karaka Bay, New Zealand.
Made amateur fiction shorts, including The Dwarf Patrol, Curse of the Gravewalker, and The Valley. Worked as a newspaper photo engraver, Evening Post, Wellington; named top New Zealand photo–engraving apprentice three years running; started making feature film Roast of the Day on weekends with friends and colleagues; renamed Bad Taste, film was completed after funding received from New Zealand Film Commission, 1986; set up own studio, Wingnut Films, in Wellington, with computer–driven special effects division, WETA; purchased National Film Unit, New Zealand, 1998. Film work: director, producer, cinematographer, special effects and makeup effects, and editor (with Jamie Selkirk), Bad Taste, 1988; director, producer, camera operator, and puppet maker, Meet the Feebles, 1989; second assistant director, Ted and Venus, 1991; director and stop motion animator, Braindead, 1991; assistant director, Deadly Bet, 1992; stunt double, Grampire, 1992; associate producer, production manager, and first assistant director, Married People Single Sex, 1993; producer (with Jim Booth and Hanno Huth) and director, Heavenly Creatures, 1994; associate producer (with Willie Boudevin and Helen
Film Award for best screenplay, for Braindead, 1993; New Zealand Film and TV Awards, for Braindead, 1993; International Fantasy Film Award for best film, for Braindead, 1993; Silver Scream Award, for Braindead, 1993; Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival, for Braindead, 1993; Grand Prize, Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival, for Braindead, 1993; Silver Lion Award, Toronto International Film Festival, for Heavenly Creatures, 1994; Metro Media Award, Toronto International Film Festival, for Heavenly Creatures, 1994; Film Award for best director, New Zealand Film and TV Awards, for Heavenly Creatures, 1995; Grand Prize, Gerardmer Film Festival, for Heavenly Creatures, 1995; ALFS Award for director of the year, London Critics Circle Film Awards, for Heavenly Creatures, 1996; TV Award for best director, New Zealand Film and TV Awards, for Forgotten Silver, 1996; Audience Jury Award, Fantasporto, for Forgotten Silver, 1997; KCFCC Award for best director, for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001; AFI Film Award (with others), for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2002; Saturn Award for best direction, for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2002; British Academy of Film and Television Artists Award for best film, for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2002; David Lean Award for Direction, for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2002; Bodil Award for best American film, for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2002; Sierra Award for best director, for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2002; Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, 2002; honorary degree, Wellington Massey University, 2002; New York Film Critics' Circle Award for best film, for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2003; Critics' Choice Award for best picture, Broadcast Film Critics Association, for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2004; Critics' Choice Award for best director, Broadcast Film Critics Association, for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2004; Critics Award for best director, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, 2004; Golden Globe for best director in a motion picture, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2004; Golden Globe for best picture (drama), Hollywood Foreign Press Association, for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2004; Modern Master Award, Santa Barbara Film Festival, 2004; best director, Directors Guild of America, for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2004; best international film, Directors Guild of Great Britain, for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2004; Academy Awards for best writing (adapted screenplay), best director, and best picture for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2004.
"I f you were entrusting $270 million to someone making three movies, you wouldn't choose me," quipped New Zealand director and writer Peter Jackson, to Melissa J. Perenson on Scifi.com . But that is exactly what New Line Cinema did when it chose Jackson to direct its lavish production of author J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, a seven–hour marathon that is divided into three separate movies released a year apart. Jackson, known as a specialist in what he calls "splatstick"—the comic horror film—was hardly known for flights of Tolkien–like fantasy up to that time. His debut feature, Bad Taste, was a sci–fi comedy about aliens who harvest Earth folk for fast–food dining, and was "awash with vomit and blood," according to BBC.com . That cult classic attracted viewers to his next films, a gory zombie comedy, Braindead, and an off–the–wall horror parody, Meet the Feebles, that has been likened to "the Muppet show on drugs," according to BBC.com .
Though Jackson earned a certain celebrity from such features, he was still an outsider to mainstream filmmaking in two ways: because of his interest in a genre that had seemingly peaked in popularity and because he continued to produce films in his home country. His breakthrough, however, came with the 1994 critically acclaimed Heavenly Creatures, starring a then–unknown Kate Winslet in a story about a New Zealand murder case. Oscar nominations for Jackson and his screenwriting and life partner, Frances Walsh, brought him to the attention of studio heads in Hollywood.
However, even Jackson was surprised when he got the nod for The Lord of the Rings. The move from small–scale productions to a mega–production like Titanic and Gone with the Wind was a big step. Yet after 15 months of filming on location in New Zealand, Jackson produced a popular box–office hit as well as a critical success with the release of the first part of the trilogy, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, in 2001. As Dade Hayes noted in Variety, Jackson proved that "he is the best director in the contemporary lead–the–troops sense of the word." Jackson told Paul Fischer of the iofilm website that he is not a Tolkien addict, but rather a fantasy fan. "I've not had a lifelong ambition to make The Lord of the Rings, which is what a lot of people are sort of assuming that I've had.… I've had a lifelong passion to make a fantasy adventure film, because when I was younger I loved Ray Harryhausen's movies, as well as stuff like Jason and the Argonauts, and the original King Kong. I've always had a desire to make one of those fantasy adventure type of films, and they don't do those movies much any more."
Born in Pukerua Bay, just west of Wellington, New Zealand, in 1961, Jackson was raised on a television diet that included Monty Python's Flying Circus, Batman, and a British science–fiction program featuring marionettes called Thunderbirds. At the age of eight, he got his hands on his parents' 8mm camera, and began experimenting with it, shooting his own home movies. His fascination was focused at about age 12 when he saw the original 1933 version of King Kong and discovered the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. That year he and a couple of friends dug a hole in the Jacksons' back garden and made a World War II movie, simulating gunshots by making holes in the celluloid next to where the guns were to simulate muzzle flash; it was his first venture into special effects. Jackson left school at 17 hoping to get work in the New Zealand film industry. All he could find initially was a minor acting job in a Swedish movie. To pay the bills, he took a position with the Evening Post, a local newspaper, as a photo–engraving apprentice. Employed, he could now afford his own camera and bought a 16mm Bolex in 1983.
Jackson collected a group of friends to help make a movie, initially intended as a ten–minute short film about aliens snacking on humans. Shooting on weekends and holidays, Jackson soon discovered that this short, with the working title Roast of the Day, was turning in a feature–length film. He re–titled the film Bad Taste, and served as director, editor, actor, and makeup man. This low–budget fare was financed at the outset by Jackson's newspaper salary. Applying to the New Zealand Film Commission for a grant so that he could do post–production work on the movie, Jackson luckily found favor with one of the chairmen, who used discretionary money to help fund the film project. It ultimately took four years to film Bad Taste, the story of a government attempt to fight aliens who are eating humans. When it was finally finished, the New Zealand Film Commission was sufficiently pleased with the gory comedy to take it to the Cannes Film Festival, where this movie of excesses met with polar extremes of criticism. Subsequently, the film was sold to 30 countries, quickly paying off its costs. Jackson met his future love and writing partner, Fran Walsh, at a screening for the film. Asked by Time 's Jess Cagle what she saw in Jackson, Walsh replied, "I think it was the brain–eating sequence." Walsh shares Jackson's macabre sense of humor.
Bad Taste was the first in a series of comedic horror films from Jackson. In this film, the extra–terrestrials have emptied the tiny New Zealand town of Kaihoro of all its inhabitants, and the government sends its top unit, Astro Investigations and Defense Service, to investigate. Things go from bad to worse as the team discovers the ghoulish reason for ET interest: prepackaging the humans for a galactic fast food chain. Chainsaw and bazooka massacres punctuate this edgy comedy, which pokes fun at the horror genre and at middle class life in New Zealand. The government agents are not the typical good–looking heroes seen in most Hollywood takes on the horror genre. Instead, Jackson's agents are "inept, nerdish, and post–adolescent," according to a contributor in International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. The film was nominated for an International Fantasy Film Award for Best Film in 1987 and an Audience Award at the FantaFestival in 1989.
Jackson continued in a similar vein when he made 1989's Meet the Feebles, an adult film with a cast of puppets that do drugs, have sex, and even commit mass murder. This film is even more outlandish in its choice of target, taking on the squeaky–clean world of Jim Henson's Muppets. "Hijacking the standard Muppet narrative framework of backstage shenanigans, Jackson gleefully subverts the perky ethos of the puppet troupe with lavish helpings of booze, filth, sex, and drugs, culminating in one of his trademark bloodbaths," wrote a critic for International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. The film was nominated for an International Fantasy Film Award for Best Film in 1989 and Best Direction at the FantaFestival in 1991.
Jackson's next film was the gore–fest Braindead (distributed as Dead Alive in the United States), in which a monkey bite turns a New Zealand woman into a zombie. The condition is contagious, and soon the film's hero must try to stop the devastation caused by a growing herd of the undead. Entertainment Weekly reviewer Owen Gleiberman noted that Jackson's film "manages to stay breezy and good–natured even as you're watching heads get snapped off of spurting torsos." Regarding the gruesome special effects, Gleiberman perceived that there were "no rules in Jackson's slapstick carnival of gore." A reviewer for Time cautioned the prospective viewer to "forget profound," but commended the "good, broad humor amid the very gross gore effects." Film critic Leonard Maltin called the film "astonishing, vigorous, [and] inventively gruesome," in his Movie and Video Guide.
"After his first three features, most critics thought they had Peter Jackson neatly pegged," wrote a critic for International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: "an antipodean maverick whose films made up for their zero–budget limitations with comic gusto, and creative ingenuity; films [with] gross–out excesses of spurting bodily fluids and splattered guts." This fascination with outrage, with the consequences of pushing beyond the bounds of convention, carries through into 1994's Heavenly Creatures. Based on an infamous New Zealand murder in the 1950s, the Parker–Hulme case, the film traces the progress of two 15–year–old schoolgirls into an increasingly unhinged world of ritual and fantasy. Pauline and Juliet are loners who bond together to turn their outsider status into an exclusive, closed society that has overtones of lesbianism. They are attracted to certain famous people—actors Mario Lanza and James Mason—turning them into icons of their friendship, and develop a medieval fantasy kingdom of Borovnia. Drawing on real case documents (Pauline's diaries and the girls' own Borovnian "novels"), Jackson creates a mood of intense pubescent obsession sliding steadily out of control until—as the borders between the two worlds collide—it culminates in brutal murder.
Jackson was determined not to present his heroines as the "evil lesbian killers" they were called in the press of the day, portraying them instead with sympathy and insight. In doing so, he captures the creative energy of their shared fantasies, a reaction to the sterile society around them. Jackson's depiction of 1950s Christchurch in garish pastels peopled by shallow gentility, appears as perhaps a more bizarre and unbalanced world than the one the girls create for themselves. However, the killing—of Pauline's well–meaning but bumbling mother when the girls believe they are going to be separated from one another—is done with none of the sick humor of Jackson's previous films, but rather is shown as clumsy, painful, and horrific in the true sense of the word. The film was a stylistic departure for Jackson that earned him international recognition. His screenplay—written with Walsh, with whom he has two children—was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay; the film also won awards at film festivals in Venice and Toronto. Writing in Film Comment, Michael Atkinson declared Heavenly Creatures "a masterpiece that marks a quantum leap from the crude emotional syntax of zombie comedies."
As co–writer (with Costa Botes) and director of 1995's Forgotten Silver, Jackson turned in another piece of quirky filmmaking. This time, he crafted a careful mock documentary that purports to tell the story of a New Zealand filmmaker named Colin McKenzie. Supposedly, McKenzie was not only the creator of the silent film classic Salome, but was responsible for numerous film "firsts," including the first tracking shot, the first feature–length film, and the first color film. Reportedly, the technological and stylistic deftness of the production left many New Zealanders, who were the first to see the production on television, convinced that it was a real documentary.
Stanley Kauffmann, reviewing Forgotten Silver for New Republic, was not surprised by the deceptive effect of the film and noted, "New Zealand, with only three and a half million people, has inched slowly into the world's film consciousness, and it's against the smallness of its film history that the sly joke of Forgotten Silver really registers." Jacqui Sadashige, writing in the American Historical Review, put the film into a larger context, however, when she commented that "the dazzling bricolage that is Forgotten Silver implicitly laments the loss of an era in which one could actually make history and not merely rewrite it or artfully deploy its remains."
When Jackson made the 1996 film The Frighteners for the United States film studio Universal, he returned to the familiar territory of the comic horror film, this time as an independent filmmaker who had clearly entered the big leagues. He had a big–name star in Michael J. Fox and a big–name producer in Robert Zemeckis. The combination resulted in a wacky blend of humor and horror, which he called " Casper meets The Silence of the Lambs " in an interview with Andy Webster in Premiere. In the film, Fox plays a ghost–hunter who is befriended by a trio of helpful ghosts after he survives a car crash that kills his wife; later, however, he is beset by some very evil and violent spirits. Jackson was aided by his own special effects in this movie; he created almost 600 computer graphics shots at his own New Zealand studio, making The Frighteners "the first CG movie produced entirely outside Hollywood," according to Anne Thompson in Entertainment Weekly. "My natural tendency is to want to deliver the goods," Jackson told Thompson. "To suspend people's disbelief, you want a lot of effects." Entertainment Weekly reviewer Ken Tucker perceived the completed film to be a "smart, subtle movie disguised as a dumb, noisy one" and "that rare horror film that actually gets better as it proceeds; this scare machine has a heart and a brain." To the contrary, People 's Ralph Novak described the film as "lame comedy" and commented, "[it] fails to mine the rich satiric possibilities of America's obsession with the paranormal." The film was nominated for the Best Film Award at the Catalonian International Film Festival in 1996.
Before The Frighteners was completed, Jackson had already been enlisted to direct a remake of King Kong for Universal; in Premiere he remarked, "It's like repaying a debt—I'm doing what I'm doing now because of that film." However, funding for King Kong never materialized, and soon Jackson found himself engaged in the most ambitious project of his career.
Jackson was approached as early as 1995—after the success of Heavenly Creatures —by Miramax to do another movie. The head of the studio had the rights to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Jackson, along with Walsh and first–time screenwriter Philippa Boyens, worked on the script for a time. At first, Jackson saw the film as a two–part movie, but Miramax wanted only one. New Line Cinema was interested in the project, as well, and felt that there was a possibility for three movies in all, reflecting the trilogy of books themselves. When King Kong fell through, Jackson busied himself in earnest with Lord of the Rings. "In adapting the screenplay, we were very much aware that we had to make changes to the book," Jackson told Scifi.com 's Perenson. "We tried to keep the spirit of the story and the plot, but the details are different." A fantasy classic since its first publication in England in the 1950s, the Lord of the Rings novels have captivated more than 100 million readers of all ages in many languages around the world. The trilogy chronicles the quest for the One Ring, which gives the wearer mastery over all. Hobbits, wee folk who love "peace and quiet and good tilled earth," as Tolkien wrote in The Fellowship of the Ring, have held this powerful Ring for many years, but now Sauron, the dark lord of Mordor—who created the Ring—wants it back. Frodo, together with a Fellowship that includes his loyal Hobbit friends, Humans, a Wizard, a Dwarf and an Elf, must take the One Ring across Middle–earth to Mount Doom, where it first was forged, and destroy it forever. The members of the Fellowship set out on a long and dangerous journey, attacked on all sides by many strange enemies, and also by the enemy within themselves: the temptation to use the power of the Ring, a power that corrupts all those who employ it.
As with his other movies, Jackson chose to produce this one in New Zealand, and also chose a New Zealand setting to resemble Middle–earth. While Jackson and his collaborators adapted much of the book freely, they took Tolkien "as the bible in terms of descriptions," as he told Scifi.com 's Perenson. Employing models, miniatures, matte paintings, and computer graphics, he enhanced the landscape into the fantasy world of Middle–earth. Painstaking care was taken, for example, in the creation of the hobbit hall at Bilbo Baggins' house. Jackson's crew created two separate scales of that set, exact duplicates of each other except for size, in order to give the illusion of a four–foot–tall hobbit.
Additionally, Jackson determined early on in the project to shoot all three parts of the movie at the same time. "I felt that in order to do the tale's epic nature justice, we had to shoot it as one big story because that's what it is," Jackson explained on The Lord of the Rings website. "It's three movies that will take you through three very unique experiences but it all adds up to one unforgettable story." Jackson further commented, "As a director, it has given me an enormous canvas on which to try all sorts of things. The story has so much variety to it. In each installment there is intimate, heart–wrenching drama, huge battle scenes, intense special effects, sudden changes for the characters, every emotion in the realm." Filmed during a 15–month shoot, the films were given a $270 million budget (which eventually rose to $310 million). Starring Elijah Wood as Frodo, along with Cate Blanchett, Viggo Mortensen, Christopher Lee, Liv Tyler, and Sir Ian McKellen, the first of the three films appeared in December of 2001 to critical acclaim.
David Ansen, reviewing the film in Newsweek, confessed he was no Tolkien groupie. "Before I saw The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, I didn't know the difference between an orc and an elf, or what Middle–earth was in the middle of.… I went in to Peter Jackson's movie with no preconceptions. I came out, three hours later, sorry I'd have to wait a year to see what happens next.… The movie works. It has real passion, real emotion, real terror." Time reviewer Richard Corliss noted that Jackson's movie "is not simply a sumptuous illustration of a favorite fable; though faithful in every way to Tolkien it has a vigorous life of its own.… His movie achieves what the best fairy tales do: the creation of an alternate world, plausible and persuasive, where the young—and not only the young—can lose themselves." David Hunter, writing in Hollywood Reporter, had similar praise for the film, calling it "masterfully paced and one of those rewarding movies that seems to get better and better as it progresses."
Nominated for 13 Academy Awards, The Fellowship of the Ring was an auspicious debut for the trilogy. Jackson, somewhat hobbit–like himself in demeanor, credits the success of the film in part to the sincerity with which it was produced. "Everybody working on the film took the attitude that The Lord of the Rings is true," the director told Daniel Steinhart in Film Journal International. "Tolkien didn't make it up. It's 7,000 years ago, the records have all been lost, but this is a true story about real people, whether you're a hobbit, a wizard, or an elf. The monsters really lived and existed, and we're just going to present it the way it was. That was our philosophy for everything on the film." The film won Academy Awards for cinematography, makeup, music, and visual effects. Jackson himself was nominated for a Golden Globe for best director and was a BSFC Award runner–up for best director in 2001, and was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Writing, a DGA Award for outstanding directorial achievement, and an Empire Award in 2002. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture, drama.
The Fellowship of the Ring was the second–highest–grossing release of 2001, earning $860 million worldwide. Its sequel, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, was released in late 2002 and took a darker turn, with more violence, doom, and an epic battle scene in Helm's Deep. According to Entertainment Weekly 's Gleiberman, this battle is a "spectacular deathly cataclysm" that is "downright biblical (or, at the very least, virtually so), with a dimension of David–and–Goliath suspense." In this film, Frodo and his best friend, Sam, are forced to split off from the rest of the Fellowship and are guided to Mordor by Gollum, a "creepy creature who has been corrupted by having once possessed the Ring," explained Time 's Corliss. The film won Academy Awards for sound editing and visual effects. For his work on The Two Towers, Jackman (along with Barrie M. Osborne and Walsh) was nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Picture. He was also nominated for a Best Director Golden Globe.
The third film in the trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, opened in 2003. Focusing on the final battle, the forces of good battle the evil army gathered by Saruman, an evil wizard and ally of Sauron. Although the forces of good are outnumbered, they persist with their fight to give Frodo time to complete his quest. "The film is a majestic finish to what may be the greatest sustained piece of entertainment in the history of movies, and the most emotionally rich," declared Steve Vineberg in Christian Century. For this film, Jackson won many honors, including a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Director, Modern Master Award from the Santa Barbara Film Festival, and a Directors Guild of America Award. The film won a record–tying eleven Oscars. Jackman himself won an Academy Award for Best Directing, Best Picture (with Osborne and Walsh), and Writing (adapted screenplay) (with Walsh and Boyens). He also won a Golden Globe for Best Picture (drama) and Best Director.
The shoot for the trilogy had been exhausting for Jackson. "My brain was shrinking. My imagination was drying up, and that was freaking me out," Jackson told Gilliam Flynn in Entertainment Weekly. To recharge, Jackson would watch films such as Good-Fellas, Saving Private Ryan, and JFK. "These movies are just wonderful examples of verve and imagination. They gave me a slap around the face: 'You know what your job is now—go back and do it,'" he explained to Flynn.
Next on Jackson's horizon was an autobiography he was working on with Brian Sibley. Plus, his dream of directing a remake of King Kong was finally coming true. He had signed a "20/20" deal to direct the film, in which he would be paid $20 million for directing, plus 20% of the box office profits. The deal made him one of the highest–paid directors of all time. Jackson was scheduled to start shooting a new version in August of 2004 in New Zealand. The film is set in 1933, like the original, with actors Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, and Jack Black playing the lead human roles. Jackson was also in negotiations to direct a film adaptation of Alice Sebold's best–selling The Lovely Bones, which he would shoot after releasing King Kong.
Moving from filming aliens with the munchies to a fantasy in the world of Tolkien to a giant ape were immense leaps, but Jackson's fertile imagination seems to be game for anything. As Jeff Giles concluded in a Newsweek profile, "Jackson is a director with a hundred boxes in his brain. There will be time to open every one."
(With Tony Hiles and Ken Hammon) Bad Taste, Blue Dolphin, 1987.
Meet the Feebles, Wingnut Films, 1989.
(With Stephen Sinclair and Frances Walsh) Braindead, Wingnut Productions, 1991; released as Dead Alive, Trimark Pictures, 1992.
(With Walsh) Heavenly Creatures, Miramax, 1994.
Jack Brown, Genius, Senator Film International, 1995.
(With Costa Botes) Forgotten Silver, 1995.
(With Walsh) The Frighteners, Universal, 1996.
(With others) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, New Line, 2001.
(With others) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, New Line, 2002.
(With others) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, New Line, 2003.
International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, vol. 2, St. James Press, 1996.
Maltin, Leonard, Leonard Maltin's 1996 Movie and Video Guide, Signet (New York, NY), 1995, pp. 76, 307.
Tolkien, J. R. R., The Fellowship of the Ring, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 1965, p. 19.
American Historical Review, June 1997, pp. 938–39.
Christian Century, January 2, 2002, p. 35; January 13, 2004, p. 41.
Cineaste, fall 1995, p. 51; summer 2001, p. 55.
Entertainment Weekly, March 5, 1993, pp. 40–41; November 25, 1994, p. 48; March 10, 1995, p. 46; December 8, 1995, pp. 81–82; July 26, 1996, pp. 34–35; August 2, 1996, p. 41; June 12, 1998, p. 84; December 14, 2001, p. 50; February 22, 2002, p. 92; December 13, 2002, p. 55; February 6, 2004, p. 92; April 30, 2004, p. 20; May 17, 2004, p. 38.
Film Comment, May–June 1995, pp. 31–36.
Film Journal International, January 2002, pp. 14–15.
Film Quarterly, fall 1995, pp. 33–38.
Hollywood Reporter, December 4, 2001, pp. 8–9; May 28, 2002, p. 14.
Library Journal, June 1, 2004, p. 138.
Maclean's, January 30, 1995, p. 86; December 17, 2001, p. 44.
New Republic, November 3, 1997, p. 29.
New Statesman, February 10, 1995, p. 39.
Newsweek, December 10, 2001, p. 72, p. 75.
New Yorker, December 24, 2001, pp. 124–27.
New York Review of Books, January 17, 2002, pp. 8–9.
New York Times, September 9, 2001, p. AR40.
People, July 29, 1996, p. 18; December 23, 2002, p. 31.
Premiere, August 1996, pp. 33–37.
Rolling Stone, January 17, 2002, pp. 55–56.
Time, February 8, 1993, p. 83; November 21, 1994, p. 110; December 24, 2001, p. 64; December 31, 2001, p. 139; December 23, 2002, p. 71; December 2, 2004, pp. 84–91.
Variety, October 16, 2000, p. 105; December 10, 2001, p. 31; March 18, 2002, p. 44; January 29, 2004, p. 19; February 2, 2004, p. 40; February 6, 2004, p. A1.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/BasicSearchInput.jsp (July 7, 2004).
"Director Peter Jackson Proves to Be the Lord of The Fellowship of the Ring, " Scifi.com , http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue244/interview.html (July 7, 2004).
Golden Globes, http://www.thegoldenglobes.com (July 7, 2004).
"'Hobbit Man' Talks Tolkien," iofilm, http://www.iofilm.co.uk/feats/interviews/p/peter_jackson.shtml (July 7, 2004).
Official Lord of the Rings Site, http://www.lordoftherings.net (July 7, 2004).
"Peter Jackson: King of the Rings," BBC.com , http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2000/newsmakers/1697355.stm (July 7, 2004).
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