Peter Jackson

Filmmakers

Sir Peter Robert Jackson ONZ KNZM (born October 31, 1961) is a New Zealand film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known as the director, co-writer, and producer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–03), with Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Christopher Lee, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis, Ian Holm, and Sean Bean; and the Hobbit trilogy (2012–14), with McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, James Nesbitt, Ken Stott, Stephen Fry, Blanchett, Holm, Lee, Weaving, Wood, Bloom, Serkis; both of which are adapted from the novels of the same name by J. R. R. Tolkien. He is the third-highest-grossing film director of all time, his films having made over $6.5 billion worldwide.

Jackson began his career with the splatstick horror comedy Bad Taste (1987), the puppet black comedy Meet the Feebles (1989), and filming the zombie comedy Braindead (1992). He shared a nomination for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with his partner Fran Walsh for Heavenly Creatures (1994), with Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet (in their film debuts; which brought him to mainstream prominence in the film industry.

His film before LOTR was the horror comedy The Frighteners (1996), with Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Dee Wallace Stone, Jeffrey Combs, Chi McBride, Troy Fyfe, R. Lee Ermey, and Jake Busey. While the film was a box office disappointment, it received mostly positive reviews and would develop a cult following over the years. Notable films after LOTR include King Kong (2005), with Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Colin Hanks, Jamie Bell, and Serkis; and The Lovely Bones (2009), with Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Michael Imperioli, and Saoirse Ronan.

Jackson has been awarded three Academy Awards for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), including the award for Best Director. His other awards include a Golden Globe, four Saturn Awards and three BAFTAs among others. His production company is WingNut Films, and his most regular collaborators are co-writers and producers Walsh and Philippa Boyens. For his work on The Lord of the Rings, Jackson was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002. He was later knighted (as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit) by Anand Satyanand, the Governor-General of New Zealand, at a ceremony in Wellington in 2010. In 2014, Jackson was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

  • The Valley (1976) – short
  • Bad Taste (1987)
  • Meet the Feebles (1989)
  • Braindead (1992) – aka Dead Alive
  • Heavenly Creatures (1994)
  • Forgotten Silver (1995) – co-director
  • The Frighteners (1996)
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)*
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)*
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)*
  • King Kong (2005)
  • Crossing the Line (2008) – short
  • Over the Front: The Great War In The Air (2008) – documentary short
  • The Lovely Bones (2009)
  • The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
  • The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
  • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
  • They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) – documentary