Did Peter Jackson’s attire during Fathom’s The Lord of the Rings 25th anniversary cinema re-release videos tease a new project?
The Lord of the Rings is back in theaters, and fans in the USA were treated to three 10-minute (And maybe a bit longer) video introductions from our favorite Director, Peter Jackson. During the Return of the King intro, Jackson talks about his professional relationship with Oscar winning cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, who tragically passed away too early in 2015. Peter talks emotionally about not doing any narrative films since losing his creative partner Lesnie, but then implies he’ll have to find a solution soon because he has something new cooking. So is Peter Jackso hinting at directing a new feature film, after finding success with documentaries?
Clues in the Shirts
Peter Jackson wears three different shirts before each of the three LOTR movies, cleverly overlaid with an open Hawaiian shirt.
We did a deep dive on what those partial words could be, and discovered a YouTube and Merch store called ZULU about the Anglo-Zulu wars. We believe, these are the shirts Peter is wearing.
The store is full of merch related to the 1964 movie ZULU starring Michael Caine, which seems to be available to watch free on YouTube.
A War with Familiar Themes
Could Peter Jackson be making a movie about the great English – Zulu tribesman war of 1879 and the African land of Shaka Zulu? Here’s the description from Wikipedia.
The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in present-day South Africa from January to early July 1879 between forces of the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Two famous battles of the war were the Zulu victory at Isandlwana and the British defence at Rorke’s Drift. The English saw an opportunity for a ruling white minority over a black majority in South Africa. This would yield a large pool of cheap labour for the British sugar plantations and mines, and was intended to bring the African Kingdoms, tribal areas, and Boer republics into South Africa. In 1874, Sir Bartle Frere was appointed as British High Commissioner for Southern Africa to effect such plans. Among the obstacles were the armed independent states of the South African Republic and the Zulu Kingdom.
A war of technologically advanced heavy machinery vs the most skilled tribesman of the continent, sounds pretty Tolkienian.
Back to South Africa
This wouldn’t be the first time Jackson has eyes on South Africa. He produced the cult hit DISTRICT 9 (2009) about aliens living amongst us in Johannesburg. District 9 came about after Jackson’s HALO movie didn’t happen, so he and director Neill Blomkamp used a lot of the same weapons and vehicles Weta had built for HALO for a new original alien-human story. District 9 was a huge hit earning $210 Million on a $30 M budget.
It should also be noted that J.R.R. Tolkien was South African, born there and moved to England after his father died.
Teasing the Fans
Peter Jackson implies in the Return of the King Fathom Event video that he may be returning to directing soon, and needs to find a new cinematographer to be his creative partner. Hey Peter, we have a suggestion: Greig Fraser lensed THE BATMAN and the first two DUNE movies. He’s been on TORN Tuesday’s podcast.
Anyway, could these t-shirts be teasing fans for his next project? Or is Peter Jackson looking at historical themes of the great Zulu War to inform a new epic LOTR war movie? Both The Two Towers and Return of the King are considered some of the greatest war movies of all time, and there are plenty more wars in Tolkien’s Middle-earth Legendarium. Yes, we realize that is a far-fetched idea.
Or is this just pure coincidence and means nothing? Peter just having a bit of fun with the fans?
What do you think? Join the Discord and talk with fans on what this all could mean.
