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October 31 is Peter Jackson’s birthday, and, as has been noted before, it seems pretty fitting that the man who began his film career as the king of low-budget splatter should have been born on Halloween.
Of course Peter Jackson is now a lot more than the king of NZ splatter – he’s a globally-known filmmaking genius who has had both phenomenal commercial success and critical acclaim.
New Zealanders love him for putting our country on the world map, for creating work for our film industry, for making films that we love to watch, and for providing such a shining display of the Kiwi ingenuity that we pride ourselves in.
Peter is understandably protective of his early work, and his later blockbuster films are bound up in international distribution rules, so he is not as represented on our site as his stature in the NZ film industry would dictate – but he and his team have been helpful and supportive to NZ On Screen, and we do have some material available to view.
We have the trailers for his trio of early splatter films – Bad Taste (1988), Meet the Feebles (1990), and Braindead (1992); as well as The Frighteners (1996), which marked an early landmark in the growth of special effects company Weta.
We also have excerpts from the Tony Hiles documentary short Good Taste Made Bad Taste (1988). In this documentary about the making of Peter’s first feature, he talks about – and demonstrates – some of the ingenious special effects and camera equipment he created for the film.
The part of Sam Neill’s Cinema of Unease documentary (1995) that is on our site features excerpts from Heavenly Creatures (one of the many scripts that Peter has worked on over the years with partner Fran Walsh), including Peter’s own brief cameo in the film.
The trailer for Tony Hiles’ 1995 feature film Jack Brown Genius (which Peter helped write) is also on the site, as is the trailer for Peter and Costa Botes’ much-loved mockumentary Forgotten Silver.
Another treat for Peter Jackson fans is the Grant Lahood short film Bogans – which is about a bunch of bogans trying to get roles in Lord of the Rings, and features a cameo role by Peter himself.
We’re all eagerly awaiting the release of Lovely Bones at the end of the year. When Peter is doing press for the film, we will attempt to score a ScreenTalk interview with him for the NZ On Screen website. In the meantime, we do have a full written profile of him, and all of the above mentioned footage.
So why not use Peter’s birthday to take a look at what we have of him on the site so far – hopefully we’ll have more material for you in the months ahead.
Happy Birthday Peter – NZ On Screen salutes you!
Today is the birthday of Sir Edmund Hillary (1919-2008). We thought we’d share the material we have on NZ On Screen – some lovely footage of this kiwi legend:
Hillary Returns – NFU Short, 1953 – Full length
Sir Edmund Hillary – Encounter – Full length episode from 1976
Holmes – Sir Edmund Hillary – Full length episode from 1996
Also online from NZ History Net is:
On top of the world: Ed Hillary – his life
