by Christopher Chatterton

Created on: April 14, 2008   Last Updated: August 09, 2008

Peter Robert Jackson was born in the small seaside town of Pukerua Bay, near Wellington on New Zealand's South Island, on 31 October 1961.

Until his incredible box office successes with the admirable conversion of J.R.R. Tolkiens' Lord of the Ring Trilogy, and most recently, King Kong, few people knew much about his prolific work as a director, writer, producer and actor.

From the age of eight years old he showed an aptitude for film making; borrowing his dads 'super-eight' hand-held camera and recording the world he saw around him. It was this get-in-and-get-your-hands-dirty approach that saw Jackson release his first feature film, 'Bad Taste' at no less than the Cannes Film Festival in 1987 to critical acclaim.

Directing Style

Jackson's early films in particular combined a wonderfully dark mix of humour and grisly gory horror with a smattering of astounding set pieces that his contemporary directors would have been envious of. Prime examples of this include Braindead (1992) and Bad Taste (1987), which despite being on an extremely modest budget ($255, 000) managed to create a feel of great attention to detail and quality.

Jackson is not a one-trick-pony however, and received an Academy Award Nomination for best Screenplay for his 1994 release 'Heavenly Creatures', co-written with his partner Fran Walsh.

The film was based on the true events of the murder of a mother by her daughter and friend, and dealt with issues of sexuality and violence in 1950's New Zealand. Jackson handled the project with typical attention to detail and sensitivity, at one point flying to Christchurch and driving two hours to the site of the house of the deceased to determine the colour of the paint for his recreation on set.
After trawling through mountains of rubbish he came across a plaque which he compared to one found in a picture of the original house, realising it was a match, and seeing flecks of green paint on it, he had his colour (Official Peter Jackson Fan club, 2008).

At the heart of Jacksons' filmmaking is a sincerity and loyalty to his roots and where he came from. The same processes of meticulous planning, preparation and involvement in the film from start to finish can be seen in his 2005 release 'King Kong' (one of Jackson's personal favourites) (Sibley, 2006).

'Was beauty killed the beast'; the immortal last line of the film was left in by Jackson in homage to the 1933 original, which apart from the special effects was a faithful retelling of the first King Kong.

The running

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