Peter Jackson was born into a life of weirdness on Halloween 1961. An only child,
he spent much of his childhood years with a super 8 camera just filming pretty
much whatever happened to pop into view (usually models). He developed an interest
in horror movies during his teenage years growing up in New Zealand. He claims
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Evil Dead, Dawn of the Dead and the Hammer horror
films as being big influences. Certainly we can see the interest in zombie flicks
in Jackson's films such as Bad Taste and Dead Alive.
Jackson's first actual film debut wasn't in the director/producer/screenwriter
position, it was an acting spot in a Swedish 1965 film titled "The Sandpiper".
At 17 he went on to do a slew of cinematography work in various different NZ tv
shows and movies, as well as ones from other countries (see films page for the
entire rundown of movies). Finally, with some financial assistance courtesy
of the New Zealand film commission, he was able to put out his first REAL self
made movie, Bad Taste. The film took him years to complete having been started
in 1983 and not released until 1987. Jackson himself had starred in the film
along with a couple other of the film crew members. This helped keep their budget
low for the production of the movie. When it did come out it was a cult classic
among the people who had actually managed to see it at film festivals in various
different countries.
The next film out of course was the Muppets on acideque "Meet The Feebles".
Complete with actors dressed up in animal costumes, many found this to be quite
a disturbingly funny film. These seedy creatures were involved in everything from
porn films to heroin addiction to binge eating. Though this movie didn't garner
as much attention as Bad Taste had (BT was screened at Cannes), it was still a
hit amongst those who had really taken a liking to his work on Bad Taste.
Zombie film Braindead was Jackson's next release. It's an original story about a
butt-ugly monkey from Sumatra reloacted to the Newtown New Zealand Zoo. According
to native legend the monkey is associated with creating zombies. The movie had so
much gore that some major video store chains only had copies which had 20 mins of
the film cut. If you don't recognize the title it might be due in part to another
movie of the same name by Roger Corman, hence for N.American audiences it was
retitled Dead Alive.
This same year (1992) Jackson released a lesser viewed film called "Valley Of The
Stereos". The NZ film comission's site describes it as this: "A hippie who would
kill for peace and quiet. A heavy metaller who would rather die than turn down
the volume. It could only end in.....The Valley of the Stereos!". I don't have
much info on this release other than that it was exec produced by Jackson and was
a Wingnut film.
We then move into 1994 and the unforgettable Heavenly Creatures, a true story
about two young girls who develop a highly unhealthy bond with one another. They
both share even the same delusions and when their respective families get in the
way of their friendship, the girls plot to kill one of their mothers. It was set
and filmed in New Zealand where the events actually did take place many years ago.
I've still got my kiwi friend trying to get the original articles from the murder
out of old Christchurch newspapers at the library.
The year 1995 saw two releases from Jackson, neither of which had the same level
of commercial attention that Braindead or Heavenly Creatures had. Forgotten Silver
IS available on video in North America and did do a few film fests. Shot in black
and white with Sam Neill as the narrator, this film caused quite the uproar in
NZ at the time of it's release... They actually believed, for a short while, that
this was indeed an old film which had been found and restored. The media went nuts
when the film was revealed to NOT be an authentic restored old film, but a recently
shot movie by Jackson. The other release this year was Jack Brown, Genius which I
hadn't even heard of until I saw it listed on the NZ film comission site. The film
was co-written and exec produced by Jackson. It's described this way: "This inspired
mockumentary comes to us courtesy of New Zealand director Peter Jackson (Heavenly
Creatures). Appearing on camera, the beerhall-bellied Jackson immodestly claims
to have discovered the missing works of a New Zealand silent-film director who
rivals America's champ, D.W. Griffith, for his astounding artistic output. We're
talking the amazing Kiwi auteur Colin McKenzie."
Half a year later Jackson released the somewhat Hollywoodized The Frighteners
with old Family Ties and Back To The Future star Michael J. Fox. It was co-produced
with Robert Zemekis who's famous for his televised Tales From The Crypt show.
Some of Jackson's fans from the beginning found this film to be somewhat of a dissapointment.
Apparently Jackson had to trim out some of his usual witty humour due to pestering
from Universal who were relesing the film. It might have seen more commercial success
if it had remained untouched. There is still some odd humour remaining but
it just doesn't come close to the laugh content of something
like Meet The Feebles.
Jackson's version of King Kong is scrapped (see news section for further details).
Universal was the co which was supposed to release this film just as they did with
the Frighteners. In the meantime Jackson is back in New Zealand working on a live actions
version of Lord Of The Rings.
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