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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!
The Qantas Film and Television Awards ceremony took place at the mighty Civic Theatre over the weekend, and NZ On Screen Content Director Irene Gardiner donned her glad rags to represent us.
Visitor from Hawkes Bay and Irene Gardiner on the red carpet
In the feature film category, Dean Spanley proved the big winner on the day, taking away seven of its 12 nominations. These included best movie with a budget of more than $1 million, best director for Toa Fraser, and best supporting actor for British acting legend Peter O’Toole. You can watch nominated actor Sam Neill talking about the film here.
Best low-budget feature went to the hit Topp Twins documentary Untouchable Girls (NZ On Screen has a nine-minute excerpt from the film). Sima Urale’s debut feature Apron Strings also featured strongly, with awards for lead actors Jennifer Ludlam, Scott Wills, cinematographer Rewa Harre, and production designer Johnny Hawkins.
On the short film front, the team of Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland scored big again with their Cannes-awarded short The Six Dollar Fifty Man, which won best short, best screenplay, and best performance (Oscar Vandy-Connor).
When it came to television, the big drama awards went largely to Until Proven Innocent, the TV movie based on the conviction of Kiwi David Dougherty. Until Proven Innocent won best drama programme, acting gongs for Cohen Holloway (who played Dougherty) and Peter Elliott, plus a camera award for David Paul. Paul Sutorius, currently working down the hall from our offices on new series Kaitangata Twitch, took away another editing gong.
Fiona Samuel’s adoption drama Piece of My Heart scored awards for young actors Emily Barclay and Keisha Castle-Hughes. Other winners included Jason Gunn and Dancing with the Stars, The Jaquie Brown Diaries, Hunger for the Wild and Play it Strange.
The news and current affairs awards were dominated by TV One.
You can find more details of those nominated – and the winners – here.
NZ On Screen would like to congratulate everyone who worked on any of the nominated productions.
NZ On Screen’s intrepid travelling “Rights coordinator and industry liaison” person Kim Baker met up with expat kiwi filmmaker Roger Donaldson in Los Angeles last weekend to show him the NZ On Screen site in development and to talk about his work. The meeting went well – stay tuned for more details!
Meanwhile Kim is on her way to Cannes to do some work with the NZ Film Commission – we look forward to more reports!
