Top movie maker Peter Jackson is just about to launch the first book to explore behind the scenes of his films and his life. Rebecca Quilliam chats to one of Hollywood’s most influential men, who warns film-making is not for the faint hearted. Peter Jackson was six-years-old when he watched a Batman movie and first heard the words “special effects”. He says it was a moment he will never forget. The words are now synonymous with the man who started his career in Wellington’s Pukerua Bay filming splatter movies with his friends and grew to direct top-grossing box office hits such as Lord of the Rings and King Kong. [More]
Month: October 2006
England’s Andy Serkis is best known for playing the creepy or the colossal – he was Gollum, the whiny, covetous blue guy in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy; he was also the tall, dark and not-so-handsome leading ape in Peter Jackson’s “King Kong.” With a lengthy resume in British theater, Serkis has had notable screen roles playing bona fide humans – the choreographer in Mike Leigh’s “Topsy Turvy,” for instance – and is currently appearing in the movie “The Prestige.” He is maintaining his creature franchise, however: Serkis will be voicing Spike the Rat in the upcoming animated feature “Flushed Away.” John Anderson caught up with him in Los Angeles. [More]
Turgon writes: The book that inspired The Hobbit, The Marvellous Land of Snergs by E. A. Wyke-Smith, has just been reissued in an inexpensive facsimile edition published by Dover books (ISBN 0486452557), priced $9.95. For more information on the Tolkien connections, see my previous column and a Order ‘The Marvellous Land of Snergs’ on Amazon.com today!
The new Brian Sibley biography of Peter Jackson reveals his yearning to return to his roots – filming low-budget sequels to splatter comedy Bad Taste. The book also talks about other projects PJ and Fran have considered directing, including a film about the NZ/Australian forces at Gallipoli in WWI and a film about an American WWI flying ace. [More]
TORN Staffer MrCere sends this along: Colin Havard: An Inkling’s Son Remembers J.R.R. Tolkien & C.S. Lewis. Presented with Mike Foster, today at St. Louis Community College, South County Education & Training Center, 4115 Meramec Bottom Road, St. Louis, Missouri. Mark Colin Havard, the son of Dr. Robert (Humphrey) Havard of Oxford, who was the personal physician of Tolkien and Lewis as well as a member of the famous “Inklings” fellowship, occasionally attended Inklings sessions along with his father. [More]
Cheley sends in word of an event at the London Heathrow Thistle Convention & Events Centre. Dominic Monaghan is slated to appear at a CelebEvents event on June 9th, 2007. Take a look at the link for more info. [More]