The Lord of the Oscars

Sir Peter Jackson, the famous film director and producer, was born in New Zealand in 1961. His life changed when a family friend gave the Jacksons a movie camera. Peter used the camera to make his first film – a remake of the classic movie King Kong – when he was only twelve. After Peter left school he worked for a newspaper, but he continued to make films in his free time. Around this time, he met and worked with Fran Walsh, a writer and musician. Peter and Fran got married in 1987, the same year that he made his first major film, a horror film called Bad Taste. Then in 1994, he made Heavenly Creatures, a film about the lives of two teenage girls. This film was very important for Peter because it won an Oscar nomination. Now the big studios knew Peter Jackson’s name and he started making films in Hollywood. In 1997, Peter and Fran met Saul Zaentz, a film producer. They decided to make films of the famous books The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbits. An English writer, JRR Tolkien, wrote these books between 1937 and 1949, and Peter loved reading the stories when he was young. Peter directed all three of The Lord of the Rings movies, which they filmed in New Zealand in 1999 and 2000. All the three movies were very successful, and the third film The Return of the King won 11 Oscars. Three of these Oscars were for Peter’s wife Fran, who wrote the screenplay and the songs. Peter had small acting parts in all three The Lord of the Rings films. Fran didn’t act in the films, but when nazguls screamed, the audience heard Fran’s voice. Peter’s next film was another remake of King Kong, the film he made in his parents’ house when he was a boy. But this time the studio paid him $20 million and the film made $550 million worldwide.