FILM INTERVIEW: PETER JACKSON

Oscar-Winning Director Turns Producer, Creates New Kind Of Threat In 'District 9'

By: Emmanuel Itier

August 24, 2009

Starting out from humble beginnings as a creator of schlock horror classics like Braindead and Bad Taste, with aliens and zombies meeting their demise via chainsaw and lawnmower, New Zealand's Peter Jackson has, over a 25-year career risen to the top of the film-making world with the all-conquering (and Oscar-sweeping) Lords of the Rings trilogy. But even as he helms a weighty film adaptation of Alice Sebold's stark Lovely Bones novel, the director has also moved into a producer role with the upcoming Hobbit films (directed by Guillermo del Toro) and TinTin series (directed by Steven Speilberg) being directed by some of the biggest names in film.

But before all that comes Jackson's producing debut with District 9, a (relatively) low-budget return to Peter's Sci-Fi/Monster roots, directed and based on a short film by an unknown South African film-maker called Neill Blomkamp. To find out how the heck, District 9 got into such a heady mix of projects, Buzzine's Emmanuel Itier sat down with Peter Jackson and settled in for a wild tale of video games, second-class alien citizens, dragons, zombies, politics and the afterlife...

EI: After completing How did you get into District 9 and working with director Neill Blomkamp?

PJ: We believe in strong relationships, and after King Kong, which was done with Universal, we kept in touch with an executive who had Halo, and she was very passionate about it. I was a super fan of the game, like my 14-year-old son. I was keen on the idea of producing this film, and we thought it was a great opportunity to find a young filmmaker. Enter Neill, who could bring something new to the project. She is the one who found Neill.

We YouTubed him and we got really into him. At that time, he had done a few commercials and short movies, so we met him while we were in post on King Kong. He started working at once on Halo, but then, after three months, the film just died. It was a sad event, and the death wasn’t even due to the budget or any other creative elements, but it was a case where two studios were involved with controlling the right and couldn’t come to terms to agree with each other with the making of this film, so it simply died. We felt very bad and guilty, so we came up with another idea during this terrible idea.

We decided to develop an original idea with Neill and at reasonable budget level to be able to raise the entire funding independently, outside of the Studio system. District 9 is inspired by a Neill short, Alive in Joburg, and we did do some solid development of characters for a feature film. We financed the film for six months, and Neill shot, in South Africa, a little segment to enhance the presentation of this film. We had an extended treatment because Neill wanted to do some sort of docu-drama. Then the independent sales company, called QED, went to AFM, the American Film Market in Santa Monica, and they were able to raise the money from pre-selling rights to the movie, to independent distributors around the world. Then Sony picked up many countries around the world to round up the whole financing.

EI: You said it was a reasonable budget, but it looks absolutely terrific on the screen…

PJ: It cost around $30M. And yes, it’s a chunk of money, but not for this kind of film, which is loaded with CGI effects all the time. We kept the overhead as low as possible and put the money on the screen…

EI: Budget and overhead - the terms of a producer: Do you like your new role?

PJ: Sure, and even though I had to sign on many papers during the phase of the funding that would guarantee that I would control the film and have final cut, I really let Neill do what he wanted to do with his film. It was his film and I thought my role was just to brainstorm ideas with him. My role was also behind the scenes at handling the physical logistics and execution of the production and post on District 9. Neill is very passionate about the culture and the society of South Africa, so I wanted to let him express this in this film. Therefore, even though it’s a big sci-fi/action/creature film, it’s also a very personal tale about a social commentary about South Africa and society in general. Only Neill could have done this and capture this on film.

EI: The movie is very political: Were you worried about that?

PJ: No, we were not worried at all because we had a small budget, done outside of the studios, and therefore we could keep an edge in terms of the political content of the film without risking any cut from such-or-such distributor... It’s true that once you’re successful and the budget for your film escalates to a $100 or $150 million, you feel the pressure and the responsibility to make something commercial and accessible enough so the investment would be somewhat safe.

At that point, yes, you’re more conservative and start thinking about the demographic and tend to maybe “control” your creativity so it doesn’t go overboard, but with District 9, it was the opposite, and we encouraged Neill to go all the way with his creative juice –  to push the edge as much as possible and do the best movie he could as he was envisioning it. 

I kept telling him: “Be as crazy as you can! Enjoy this!” We knew it was rated R, so we didn’t have any concern. Also, we knew we were going to be in front of monster movies like the new Transformers, so there was no way we could compete visually in terms of spectacle. We knew the edge was going to come from the tone and what the movie would convey in terms of political ideas and commentaries. It was fun to be as rude and as violent as we could be! Politically, the movie reflects Neill’s experience in South Africa and his youth; the ugliness of the end of the Apartheid he witnessed. He wanted to put this on film with an alien content. I think the movie is special because it’s based on life experience and not just a created concept.

EI: Did you use a suit or CGI for the aliens?

PJ: We tried to build a costume and put an actor in it, but at the end, pretty much all of the shots with aliens you see are CGI, even though the movie was shot with an HD camera everybody can afford to buy or rent, but the rest of the effects were state-of-the-art, and I believe it looks great on the screen.

EI: What do you think of the use of digital hi-def shooting versus regular film?

PJ: I really enjoy both processes. They say that once you shoot digital, you don’t go back to regular filming, and I don’t think this is true. Even though you get better and better digital cameras, I still enjoy shooting on film, and it’s only very recently that I started using digital cameras. I sure like some of the newer models that offer a softer image, but film is film…

EI: Are you now inspired to choose more directors to work with as a producer?

PJ: First, let me tell you that I’m not particularly focused on producing other directors’ work, and it’s a case-by-case plan, not an overall focus. The films that I finance dictate what happens in regards to the directing. For me, it’s a question of faith — of trust.

If faith takes me in this direction, then I don’t fight it, and what happens shall happen. I let myself be taken by the tide of the ocean! Also, I don’t like to get too involved in somebody else’s creative vision. Finally, I don’t like to compete with myself, and this is mainly why I chose Guillermo del Toro to direct The Hobbit — I just didn’t want to repeat myself or figure out a way to top myself compared to what I had done with the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings. I wanted to give somebody the chance to bring to the screen their own vision. But, of course, since we’re using the same set-up, locations and some of the same actors, it’s crucial for me to be there and “chaperon” Guillermo’s task into bringing this great book to the screen.

The Hobbit movies are moving at a faster pace now that we have Guillermo on board. We’re just a week away from giving to the Studio [MGM] a detailed script for the first movie as well as artwork to illustrate the vision for it. It took us some time to decide if this was going to be one, two, or three films. After months of figuring it out, we settled for two movies. This way, we didn’t lose too much of the essence of the book, and we kept truly what mattered into the films. There are rumors of cast being involved, but the truth is that we didn’t offer yet any single role to anyone. But, of course, you might imagine some of the same actors you saw in the Lord of the Rings will be back, and some new faces…

The goal is to release the first film in December 2011 and the second in December 2012. A big challenge in this film is to find the perfect dwarfs, define them well and find the perfect actors. I was a little bit anxious also, working on the script of The Hobbit, because it had been so long since I had worked with this universe of characters and stories. But within a few days of hammering down the script, it all came back and I really had a good time writing the new script.

EI: What’s going on with The Lovely Bones?

PJ: The trailer has been released with the release of Julie and Julia in the US in August, and now it’s all over the Internet. I’m very excited about this film that will come out in December in America. Some people compare this film to Heavenly Creatures - in a way, it’s true in term of its making. I needed to do something different. I had done four big movies — blockbuster-types — and I wanted to jump into something more “intimate” and something different — some type of new challenge. I cried when I read the book and I thought this would make a terrific movie. It was a very hard book to adapt because it does not have a film structure. We very much adapted the book and had to omit a few big sections.

EI: In adapting that particular book, you must have had to do some serious thinking: did it crystalize what your vision of the afterlife depicted in this film will be?

PJ: It’s really the vision of this young girl who dies, and it’s very much the ’70s. Even though there are talks of heaven, it is not "Heaven" but more an “in-between” dimension. Also, the vision of the afterlife is different for everyone in the movie and the book. It’s based on what each person experiences just before dying. So, for her, it’s the experience of being 14 years old in 1973 and the pop culture she witnessed. The movie has some layers of humor and is light at times, even though it’s about a tough subject — death. The overall tone of the movie is very much like a thriller, and even though there are funny moments, it’s a very tense dramas. As you know, this is a unique story of a little girl who is murdered and watches from that dimension over her family and her killer! I think this will be quite a unique movie…

EI: Lots of people who loved the book seemed puzzled by the choice of Mark Wahlberg. Can you explain your choice for the role of the father?

PJ: We really liked his performance in I Heart Huckabees, and we needed someone who had a light sense of humor and is close to his daughter to be able to communicate with her no matter what, as well as someone who could act, as he’s haunted by this guilt of having lost his daughter and not being able to solve the puzzle of her murder. I really think he did a great job.

EI: What about Stanley Tucci, who looks so different in this movie?

PJ: Yes, and he was very worried about this total physical transformation. He plays such an evil character — a very nasty guy.  Stanley loved, actually, this transformation, and I trust he will terrify you in this movie.

EI: It seems like it’s the second movie dealing with some strange and dark events happening to teenage girls. What was the attraction in Lovely Bones?

PJ: I know what you’re saying, but I don’t think I’m drawn to dark stories about teenage girls in general. I was not looking for another movie with a teenage girl. It just happened that I ran into this book and that the book mesmerized me, so this was just a coincidence. It’s a little bit strange, but so is life at times…

EI: Was the writer, Alice Sebold, involved in the process of making the film?

PJ: Not really, but she, of course, read the final script and is okay with the idea we did of an adaptation with lots of liberties of her novel.

EI: How hard is it to adapt a book or series of book and make them personal?

PJ: Everything is personal. When you read a book, you put yourself into this book, in a way, and you’re going to identify to such-or-such topic based on your personal experience. When I read a book, I always get inspired visually. When you read a book, you play immediately, in your head, the movie of this book, and sometimes the movie is clear, like with the Lord of the Rings, or sometimes, even though you want to adapt it, it’s a tough task, like it was for The Lovely Bones.

EI: Don't you have another upcoming book adaptation in view - Temeraire?

PJ: It looks like we’re going to adapt six books that are a series of adventures set in the Napoleonic times and when the British had a strong Navy and Air Force, and in the first movie, they are fighting dragon creatures — the armies of Napoleon. Visually, I think it can be extraordinary. We have started to work on some conceptual art, but this is such a huge series of six books that I’m thinking this could be a great TV miniseries instead of a series of big-budget features for the screen.

EI: And although it is a comic book, another tough book adaptation will be the books of Tintin, at least for an American audience who are not as familiar with the story as the rest of the world...

PJ: I’m not worried too much about the American audience, because I know the marketing and promotion campaign will be so important that it will be hard for an audience to ignore or not be educated about what Tintin is. Also, it’s not because you’re not familiar with a character that it does not become a huge success - look at Indiana Jones or Star Wars. What’s important is to make a good movie, and then the audience will come.

Steven Spielberg, as you know, is directing the first movie, and he just finished filming the motion capture part of it, because lots of the movie is motion capture. My role is to produce, and I collaborate with Steven and I help as a support team more on the logistic side. Then we have to write the other script before we get into the two others. What is great is that we are all huge fans of Tintin.

Actually Tintin was huge in New Zealand when I grew up, as well as in Australia. What’s funny is that Spielberg read criticisms of the first Indiana Jones that were coming out of Europe and comparing his films to a Tintin adventure, so at the time, he got intrigued, read all the books, fell in Love with Tintin and bought the rights. And here we are!

EI: There were also rumors of you directing a Nazi zombie film…

PJ: Sorry to disappoint you, but this was only a rumor! But I think if something would make it, this would probably be fantastic! On the other hand, I can tell you that I’m a fan of the aerial World War I battles, and I have done lots of little shoots and tests to eventually, one day, make a movie about World War airfare. But at this time, we are just playing around and testing cameras.

Lately, I even did a little doc for a Historical museum, and I had the chance to be able to film with five original World War I planes. This was a great experience. Also, I have to tell you I’m so fascinated by these planes that, even though you can’t find many of them, I have been involved in rebuilding them from scratch. We go around and find engines and pieces of these planes, and we get the original drawings to just turn them into the real thing. My favorite original engine I found was in a South American barn from 1915, and it’s the oldest Rolls Royce airplane engine, so I created my own vintage plane company.

With all the planes we build, we put on four or five air shows a year for people. I’m lucky to have a great team of pilots, but I don’t pilot myself. Occasionally I get in the passenger seat! We built a plane factory just a mile away from my Studios in New Zealand, and this is where I enjoy hanging out.

EI: Where does a passion for old planes and that period in history come from?

PJ: I’m not sure, really… how do you ever explain your hobbies? I just think all of this is so cool. I know, it’s a little bit geeky, and guess what: I love to make plane models! And guess what: We just created a company that makes plastic models for kids! So, we are at the start of trying to put together a film around these planes, but not sure where we’re going yet in terms of the story. Also, I need to figure out when I can make a film in between all of the Hobbit, Tintin, and other projects. Also, I’m quiet busy producing another movie, Dambusters, to be directed by Christian Rivers.

He worked as the visual effects conceptual designer on The Lord of the Rings, and worked in many movies in special effects various capacities. He’s also a wise animation director on King Kong and won an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects. This film takes place in 1943 and is about a group of Royal Air Force pilots who are dispatched on a mission to destroy three German dams that drive the Nazi steel industry. It’s based on a true story. We might film this one in 3D, as I enjoy the process and might sink my teeth into it. We bought some 3D gears for my Studio, and I think that having bombs drops in 3D during a war scene might look fantastic.

EI: OK, so no time for a Nazi zombie flick... but will we ever see you make a very gory horror movie again, like your early flicks?

PJ: I might, and when I see the reaction and the love the audience gives to a film like District 9, it makes me want to jump back into more gory and monster-driven films! Also, it might be great to do another low-budget horror film because you don't go through the same pressures and expectations than when you do a big budget blockbuster.. it’s a certain level of freedom, you’re free to be more crazy and wacky, and I love the idea of going back to doing these types of films. So we shall see.

TriStar Pictures' 'District 9' is in theaters now.