Peter Jackson

Jackson with Oscar

Peter Jackson was once a small independent movie director from New Zealand, but in 2001 he managed to release one of the most successful movie series in history. He is also my hero for his actions. Peter Jackson was born on October 31, 1961 in Pukerua Bay, New Zealand; he wanted to be a film maker when he saw King Kong at the age of 9 (which he would make a remake of later in life). He began to film things around his house and make small movies with his camera recorder when he was child.

Peter Jackson is my hero because he has done what he has wanted with his work, unlike other directors who are directed by their studios. He began working on his first movie in 1983 and finished it in 1987, and it was called Bad Taste. The movie was filmed with a small budget and was shot over weekends for four years and starred Peter Jackson as well. He played three characters in the movie, sometimes in the same scene, and edited it to look normal.

Peter Jackson in his cameos from Lord of the Rings (Wikipedia.org)

Jackson's next films would be primarily horror movies, but they all had a sense of comedy to them. They were known as "splatstick." Jackson's next big movie was Heavenly Creatures, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screen Play. After the release of Heavenly Creatures, he was the director of a rather big movie project the Frighteners, but it failed to make box office dollars. In 1997 Jackson bought the rights to The Lord of the Ring and first had trouble trying to find a studio that would make his movie and was turned down until 1999. New Line Cinemas stepped up and took a financial risk and produced the movies with Jackson. Jackson liked New Line because they allowed him to direct it the way he wanted after a huge amount of scripts and drafts with other companies, which he thought tore a lot of the story away from the original book. This allowed for him to make the movies as accurate to the book as possible. Filming began in 1999 and ended in 2000 with random pick up shoots till the release of the third movie. Jackson would take a lot of film shoots in just one scene to find the perfect view of the scene. Also he has been known to do things in the movie the old fashion way by taking scale models (rather large ones too) and using them for special effects. Also he has made various cameos in his movies.

Peter Jackson with original King Kong model

The movie was a smash hit success around the world and is considered our generation's "Star Wars." Jackson won many awards for his movies and also more fame than he could ever imagine. Also they are some of my favorite movies. He would go on to direct a remake of King Kong, which had been his dream since he was a small boy, and it sent shock waves around the world. Now Jackson is directing and producing big budget movies such as Halo and possibly the Hobbit.

Peter Jackson has made over 1 billion dollars in movie ticket sales, and he has never been to film school. The reason Peter Jackson is my hero is because he is dedicated to his work of producing great movies. Also he makes the movies he wants to, unlike some other directors who are forced to do the bidding of studios and aren't appreciative of their work. Jackson truly resurrected JRR Tolkien's work for a new generation by turning three of his most famous books into blockbusters that will be around for many more generations. He is my hero for simply being great at what he does and liking it.