When you’re heading off into the deepest, darkest and possibly most giant gorilla-infested jungle on Skull Island there are a few things you might want to pack. A camera, a big gun, someone who looks a bit like Fay Wray and — if you’re Peter Jackson — the screen’s most famous ballet dancer. [More]
Category: Peter Jackson
While at Cannes, a lot of questions were answered concerning a wide variety of subjects. One of the more interesting pieces of information that came to light was the Stuart Townsend drama.
Let me give a quick background. Stuart was cast in the role of Aragorn but departed the production a mere 3 days after filming started. Initial reports through our spies had suggested that Stuart was hard to work with and there was a lot of friction on the set.
So why was Stuart replaced?
Well, at the Press Conference last friday, Peter Jackson spoke a bit about the situation. As it turns out, Stuart is an extraordinary actor. Jackson and others were impressed with his abilities, however as time moved on, it became apparent that he was too young for the role. As Peter put it, even Stuart, a big fan of the books, insisted he was too young for the role.
When Viggo Mortensen was cast, both Peter Jackson and Barrie Osborne gave the news to Stuart. They parted on good terms and in agreement.
So basically, Stuart was too young. There was no tension or friction between Townsend and Jackson as was previously reported.
PJ did go on to say that the day Viggo joined the team must have been fate, because there could not have been a better person cast in the role. He is Aragorn.
NZ’s TV show “Holmes” showed a few minutes of interviews in Cannes, including one with Peter Jackson and some of the cast. There’s almost-clear shots of the Cannes party set-up with actors and musicians. Go here and look in the archive for May 14.
The sound kind of goes splah in the last minutes, but thanks to Ringer spy Nigel we have a transcript of the last part:
“Reporter: Its said you’ve made the biggest film project ever. How big is big?
Peter Jackson: Well it is the biggest ever. I mean really its 3 movies which is obviously one of the factors. But its 15 months of shooting continuously, nobody has ever shot a movie for 15 months before.
Reporter: This is a huge step, would you have ever dreamt when you were making all those splatter movies like Braindead that one day you would be producing something like this?
Peter Jackson: No. I’m just very lucky because I’m doing what I want to do. Everyday that I’m working on this project I just feel incredibly lucky.
Reporter: You’re a happy man?
Peter Jackson: Yeah. I love directing movies and I’m directing Lord of the Rings. Its the ultimate.
[Cut to Liv Tyler and Orlando Bloom]
Reporter: Liv when they told you were gonna make a blockbuster right at the bottom of the world what was your reaction?
Liv Tyler: I think that more than even anything was my first kind of *high sigh* cause I was incredibly excited about the project and I didn’t have any concerns about being away from my career for a year. But personally being away from my family and stuff I just thought ‘oh my god can I handle that?’ you know. But it was great and I did and I just thought ‘you know what? It’s a year out of my life and I can handle it,’ and it was such a beautiful wonderful place and I tended to get home sick something the boys didn’t as much as me..
Orlando Bloom: We made the most of the surf and bungie, and skydiving.
Reporter: What was Peter like to work with Liv?
Liv Tyler: Peter’s amazing. He cares so much about this book and about this story. I think he’s a Hobbit but there is some part of each character inside of him and I could really see it come alive, his imagination is enormous and just full of so much passion for the project.
[Cut to Sean Aston] Peter Jackson is a great actor . He could do the hobbits to us and I could see him turn and do Aragorn, do the human hero and he changed! I learned a lot about acting just watching him direct.
[Cut to Sir Ian Holme] In a word genius. Forthright, patient, focussed ..a kiwi.
[Cut to Sir Ian McKellan and Christopher Lee]
Sir Ian McKellan: I’ve never worked with a director who has only one pair of shoes *laughter* and doesn’t wear them very often.
Christopher Lee: I’ve never worked with a director myself, for the first time 2 days ago wearing long trousers *more laughter*
[Cut to Dominic Monaghen] We’re all hoping that Peter will now be recognized as one of the greatest film makers alive today and that he will be given the opportunity to make the movies that he wants to make.”
Canal + has posted their RealVideo of the PJ interview they had this week-end. Check it out, they ask PJ only 1 question and show the trailer (in french, which is kinda neat). Get the streaming file and move the progress bar to about 20 minutes into the show. [More] (RealPlayer is needed)
Fantastic work here by Ringer spy Arathorn II, who translated the interview with Peter Jackson that aired on France’s Canal + which will be available on their website tomorrow, but meanwhile here is what was said.
“The interview begins with a short presentation of movies made by PJ: Braindead, Heavenly Creatures, Forgotten Silver… Then the interview begins (PJ being probably a bit stressed, or amazed by the reaction, if it’s not just simple jetlag).
I(sabelle): We’re very glad to introduce to you Peter Jackson, director from New Zealand. Good evening. It’s a great honor to meet you.
PJ: Hi.
I: It’s true that, with some others on the set, we’re overjoyed because you’re a big legend for some of us. True, now you don’t sound very familiar to the general public, but this shouldn’t last for long, since that, thanks to you, we’ll discover at the end of the year the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The first episode will be released in December 2001, in a few months.
P(hilippe): Then it’ll be in 2002 and 2003.
I: We had the pleasure to discover some 20 minutes of it. Given the feeling of this afternoon’s screening, if I tell you now that to receive you is a bit like receiving George Lucas in 1977 just before Star Wars release, I imagine you’ll be delighted by the comparison?
PJ: Oh yeah, it’s great to be back at Cannes, you know, for me. One of the outstanding events of my life was to come here with my first movie, Bad Taste, some 13 years ago. And what’s pretty weird is that, as you pointed to, for the LOTR screening the reaction was a bit like the one for the Bad Taste screening 13 years ago. So it’s good to be back in the same theatre.
P: So you’ve made Meet the Feebles, one of the most deliciously disgusting movies I ever saw, Bad Taste you showed here in 1988, and now here’s the LOTR trailer, after which you’ll tell us 2 or 3 things to understand Tolkien’s universe….”
[Theatre teaser – dubbed in French, with an awful Galadriel (voice) I definitely hope they’ll change for the real stuff.]
Back to studio, short chat with the other guest, back to PJ.
I: LOTR, before it was a movie, was a big literature phenomenon…
P: It’s a bit less read than the Bible, but just a little bit less.
I: Give us 2 or 3 keys to understand what it is about?
PJ: Well, the story of the Lord of the Rings. First, it’s 3 books. And I think one of the reasons why it took 45 years before someone made a movie of it is because many people wanted to but didn’t know how to make 1 movie from 3 books; it’s practically impossible. And we had the luck of making 3 different movies, so we shot the 3 books from beginning til the end, 274 days of shooting without any stop. So it’s 3 movies we’ll release one after the other.
It’s a fantasy mystical movie.
The characters, the hobbits, are appr. 1.5 m high [?? wrong conversion of 3’6″ ??], and they come into possession of an incredibly dangerous Ring, that it has an enormous evil power. And there’s just one place where it can be destroyed, that is some 2’500-3’000 km from there. And they have to make this travel through this very dangerous world.
The Fellowship of the Ring is a group of people that tries to help the Hobbits to make this travel.
So, it’s an epic movie.
I: You make my mouth water.
P: So there was the screening this morning, which was very popular. We gathered not-even-contrasted opinions.
Follow various comments by various French and foreign people that attended the screening:
– It’s hard to find words; it’s exceptional, it’s wonderful, there are incredible SFX!
– It’s an incredible adventure!
– It’s absolutely fantastic!
– Audacious!
– It’s wonderful!
– It’s powerful, it’s impressive, it shows great promises.
– It’s wonderful, it’s magic, it’s poetic, it’s…
– I can’t wait to see the rest!
– It’s extraordinary!
– It’s the best thing I’ve seen since a long time.
– There’s in my opinion one of the biggest babe I ever saw, Viggo Mortensen.
– It’s intense, very intense.
– I think that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas will be very disappointed they didn’t make that movie.
Back to interview:
I: That’s it, an eagerly awaited movie, with as much marketing as movie-making. Is there a big pressure on your shoulders, Peter Jackson?
PJ: Well, it’s fantastic to have such a reaction, frankly. You know, the movie release is only in 6 months, we’ve worked for 2 years on it. So it’s the very first time anyone saw anything from this movie [Complete scene with finished SFX, I assume]. And after such a work from everyone at the set, it’s fantastic to have a feedback and to see that people like it. It’s a great incentive because I have to go back to NZ on Monday and to work again on edition, so to be here and to have such a reaction is really something that gives me energy to go back to New Zealand and go on with my work.
P: See you all at the end of this year, then in 2002 and 2003. There was the epic shooting of Apocalypse Now, now there’s the epic shooting of LOTR. But you didn’t become crazy, unlike Coppola; though all is not as it appears.
Thank you very much to have come to the studio.
PJ: Thank you.