Peter Jackson

Owns two houses in Wellington, New Zealand.

Made the latex models for Bad Taste in his moms kitchen oven, often forcing the family to have sausages for dinner because they couldnt use the oven.

Owner of production companies WingNut Films, Weta Limited and Three Foot Six.

Father of Billy Jackson and Katie Jackson.

Collects models of airplanes from World War One.

During filming of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring , he used the same pair of shoes and only two T-shirts.

He likes 1960s music his favorites are The Beatles (he paid homage to them in Bad Taste ).

After his parents, Bill and Joan, died, Jackson inherited the modest Pukerua Bay house where he grew up.

The stuff in the bowl, in his first movie Bad Taste , was yoghurt, muesli and green food colouring.

In 1998, he bought the New Zealand based film company National Film Unit.

Credits his favorite movie King Kong as his biggest inspiration in filmmaking. He said that he cried when King Kong fell off the Empire State Building.

The movie that gave him the love for splatter is George A. Romero s Dawn of the Dead . After seeing it, he felt a bit sick but amazed too.

(November 26, 2001) Together with his partner Fran Walsh , he received the honorary graduation from Massey University.

He and Fran Walsh , were both awarded Companion of the Order of New Zealand Merit on March 5, 2002 for their services to the film industry.

He left school at age 17 and started working on a Wellington newspaper.

For his first movie, Bad Taste , he did all the special effects, the make-up effects and built exact replicas of the weapons.

He allegedly offered $150,000 to Aint-it-cool webmaster Harry Jay Knowles for his King Kong original poster.

Started writing a remake of King Kong in 1996, which went through several drafts, until in 2003 he made one that was greenlighted by Universal.

Ranked #20 in Premiere magazines 2003 annual Power 100 List. Had ranked #41 in 2002.

(March 2003) Voted "Man of the Year 2002" in the Australian Empire Magazine.

Both of his parents died during production of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Met Fran Walsh in 1987, during post-production for the gross-out cult classic Bad Taste .

Son of Bill Jackson and Joan Jackson.

Nominated for a Best Director Academy Award for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (which he won), but not for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers .

The London Daily Mail reported (December 5, 2003) that Jackson was so fond of King Kong that he once cut up his mothers old fur coat and used it to make a model of the great ape; also that he consulted with Andy Serkis on the script of his version of the movie.

Has worked with three generations of Astins: John Astin ( The Frighteners ); Johns son, Sean Astin (the Lord of the Rings trilogy); and Seans daughter, Ali Astin ( The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ).

Ranked #6 in Premiere magazines 2004 annual Power 100 List. Had ranked #20 in 2003. He is the second-highest rated director on the list, behind only Steven Spielberg.

The copies of the Lord of the Rings books that he referred to during filming are the ones that he bought after seeing The Lord of the Rings . The books have cover art by Ralph Bakshi.

Has been referred to by Fran Walsh as being a hobbit himself, due to his physical stature, his tendency to go barefoot, and the fact that he is swarthy (in Walshs words, "furry").

Estimated earnings from the Lord of the Rings trilogy come close to $125 million.

Along with his wife Fran Walsh , he was one of three husband/wife teams to be nominated for an Oscar for the 2003 season, the others were Michael McKean and his wife, Annette OToole and Shari Springer Berman and her husband Robert Pulcini. Jackson and Walsh won Oscars while the other couples walked out of the award with no Oscars.

Three of his collaborators have had connections to the material being filmed, outside the context of the film being made. Ian Holm , whom he cast as Bilbo in "The Lord of the Rings", was cast because he had played Frodo in the BBC radio adaptation. That adaptation was written by Brian Sibley , who is a cousin of his wife, Fran Walsh. In Heavenly Creatures , Kate Winslet plays Juliet Hulme, who would later be known as real-life mystery novelist Anne Perry. Winslet has a sister, Anna Winslet , who appears as Dora in The Cater Street Hangman , which was based on one of Perrys novels.

Is among an elite group of eight directors who have won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay (Orig/Adapted) for the same film. In 2004, he won all three for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King . The other directors are Billy Wilder , Leo McCarey , Francis Ford Coppola , James L. Brooks , Joel Coen and Ethan Coen and Alejandro G. Irritu.

Crowned the most powerful man in Hollywood by ranking #1 on Premiere magazines 2005 Power 50 List. It is his first #1 ranking. Had ranked #6 in 2004.

Ranked #7 in Empire magazines "The Greatest directors ever!" .

Lost 70 lbs. during the production of King Kong .

No longer needs glasses after undergoing eye surgery during the making of King Kong .

Described the production of the Lord of the Rings trilogy as "laying the tracks down in front of the train" as it was moving forward.

Ranked #11 on Premiere magazines 2006 "Power 50" list. Had ranked #1 in 2005.

Is a huge fan of "Doctor Who" , and has used the screen name Xoanon, taken from the Doctor Who story "The Face of Evil".

One of few directors to be offered the chance of writing and directing sequels to many famous horror franchises. He was offered Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III , Freddys Dead: The Final Nightmare , Freddy vs. Jason , I Still Know What You Did Last Summer , Exorcist: The Beginning , Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers , Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth and Childs Play 3 .

Ranked #16 on EWs The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood.

To acquaint actors who had not read the books with the story, he used the BBC Radio version of The Lord of the Rings, which starred Ian Holm. He ended up using Holm as Bilbo in the films.

He was awarded Knight Companion of the Order of New Zealand for his services to the film industry in the 2010 Queens New Years Honours List.

His five favorite films, according to Rotten Tomatoes, are The General (1926) , King Kong , Jaws , Goodfellas and Dawn of the Dead .

(January 27, 2011) Recovering in a Wellington, New Zealand hospital after undergoing emergency surgery to repair a perforated ulcer.

Has directed two actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Ian McKellen and Stanley Tucci.

In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he cast Ian Holm as Bilbo because he had previously played Frodo in the BBC Radio adaptation, thus allowing Holm to have played the heroes of both of Tolkiens major works. In the Hobbit trilogy, Benedict Cumberbatch plays both Smaug and the Necromancer, a character later revealed to be Sauron, thus allowing Cumberbatch to have played both major villains.

Peter Jackson is the third director (after James Cameron and Christopher Nolan) to have released two films that have grossed $1 billion worldwide during their run. His films were The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey .

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on December 8, 2014.

He has made seven films with Cate Blanchett : The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring , The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers , The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King , Hot Fuzz , The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies . Hot Fuzz is the only one that he did not direct.

Owns the rubber and steel-skeletonized triceratops puppet made and used by the animators of the original King Kong , his favorite movie. Before the 2005 release of that film on DVD, Jackson had the model x-rayed at a hospital radiology lab to study the structure of the skeleton inside. The rubber skin on the model, having deteriorated over the decades, was thought to be too fragile to remove completely for a closer examination. The model was then entirely rebuilt from scratch with several other creatures from the film at WETA studios for an authentic stop-motion recreation of the famous lost spider-pit sequence of the 1933 film, which was included in the bonus features of the 2005 DVD version.

Was considered to direct Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens .

Was considered to direct Planet of the Apes .

Was considered to direct Alien: Resurrection but turned it down because he was unenthusiastic about an Alien sequel.

Member of the Guild of British Camera Technicians (GBCT).

Grandfather to Canadian actor Peter DaCunha.

New Zealand is not a small country but a large village.

On Meet the Feebles (1989) : I have a moronic sense of humour.

Return of the King is the most enjoyable because in the structure of the,movies, it is nothing other than pay-off, there is no more setting up,to do, no more exposition, no more introducing characters. The pay-off,is very character-based. It is action-orientated as well, but all of,our characters have been pushed to a point where their life and death,depends on what happens in the third movie. It is very emotional, and,from an actors point of view it is very enjoyable to work on, because,they were able to play some pretty intense drama. From my point of view,it was always great, because we were heading toward an ending, a climax,which we never had in the other two.

To get an Oscar would be an incredible moment in my career, there is no,doubt about that. But the Lord of the Rings films are not made for,Oscars, they are made for the audience.

[on his earlier and more controversial movies] - I call them,splat-stick. To me, they were a joke. We enjoyed being crazy and,anarchic and upsetting the people we wanted to upset in those days.

The weird thing about being a director of films that have a certain,popularity and a following is that you are forced to have to deal with,things that you have no interest in but they become part of your life.

[on filming the J. R. R. Tolkien fantasies] I am a lifelong Buster Keaton,fan. I am not saying I am approaching his genius, but we are able to,make things exciting and provide bits of visual humour as we do.

If justice is supposed to be fair, than any justice system you would hope is based on fairness.

Learning how to edit movies was a real breakthrough.

I just got tired of being overweight and unfit, so I changed my diet from hamburgers to yogurt and muesli, and it seems to work.

The most honest form of filmmaking is to make a film for yourself.

100 years ago, movies were black-and-white, silent, and 16 frames a second. So 100 years from now, what are they going to be?,One of the best things about growing up in New Zealand is that if you are prepared to work hard and have faith in yourself, truly anything is possible.

Once upon a time, sound was new technology.

What I think is remarkable about my mum and dad is they had no interest in films, really. None.

My dad always told me that the principal reason he chose New Zealand to emigrate to after World War II was the high regard his father had for the Kiwis he encountered at Gallipoli. .