He may have shed about five stone, but Oscar-guzzling Kiwi director Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) has lost none of his movie heavyweight status. Having trumped half of Hollywood to the rights to The Lovely Bones, PJ is officially of mogul standing these days. He recently produced surprise sci-fi hit District 9 and is currently buddying up with Steven Spielberg on the long-awaited Tintin trilogy (Jackson is producer of the first and set to direct the sequel). It’s not bad for a guy from Pukerua Bay.
But Jackson’s success is essentially a tale of two geeks; you always sense there are two kinds of director lurking inside him. One is the loveable gum and gumption Kiwi filmmaker who just wants to make homemade, gory splatterfests like Braindead; the kind which made him the cultest of cult directors back in the early ’90s. The other is sat firmly on the Hollywood gravy train, ploughing down the same naval-gazing techno-dead end that makes Star Wars fans want to trap George Lucas in carbonite. You saw both in Lord of the Rings; sadly the latter won out in King Kong. Yet, one thing rings true, Jackson is at his best when darkness is afoot. Cue The Lovely Bones.
Adapted from Alice Sebold’s 2002 hit novel, Jackson first read it while wrapping up the second Lord of the Rings movie. ‘People were starting to rave to me about this book and so as soon as I could, I grabbed it.’ The subject matter clearly appealed. ‘On the face of it, the novel is about every parent’s darkest fear – the loss of a child. Yet, ultimately, it grows into a story about the redeeming power of love, which is why I think so many people are drawn to the book.’
The story follows that of Susie Salmon (played by Saoirse Ronan, better known as the little girl from Atonement), who, having been murdered by a quiet, unassuming local sociopath, sways between guiding her grieving father (Mark Wahlberg) to the killer and moving on. It is a theme which Jackson has explored before from both sides. He shared an Oscar with writer-partner Fran Walsh for the screenplay of 1991’s Heavenly Creatures, which told the true-life story of teenage kiwi murderesses Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme (and unleashed Kate Winslet on the world), and later helmed comic-thriller The Frighteners, about a psychic detective attempting to thwart the ghost of a thrill-killer. When it comes to murder, PJ certainly has previous experience.
Jackson is used to revising other people’s work, too. For King Kong he rewrote a film; Lord of the Rings, a book; Heavenly Creatures, a true story. But The Lovely Bones posed different problems in how to adapt what is essentially an ethereal book. ‘We all like puzzles,’ says Jackson, ‘and I think we saw The Lovely Bones as the ultimate puzzle for screenwriters. How do you take Alice’s very intricate, poetic book, which doesn’t in any way scream “I’m a movie” and structure it as a film? We became obsessed with how to move the pieces around to tell this story on the screen.’
The mix of fantasy and drama perhaps only half works, depending on what you’re expecting. The crux comes in depicting the specific afterlife as described in the book – creating an essentially secular notion of a spiritual idea. ‘What we attempted to do is to present an afterlife that is evocative, elusive and ephemeral. It is a place which reflects the eye of the beholder; it isn’t filled with any particular religious iconography.’
The Lovely Bones perhaps falls into that third category of Jackson film, more along the lines of Heavenly Creatures. There is plenty of scope for some CGI trickery, perhaps too much, but it’s a human story at heart, as Jackson is keen to point out. ‘It’s about an evil man who takes pleasure in murder and it’s also about a family trying to figure out how to rebuild their lives in the face of overwhelming loss.’ It’s a grown-up film by a grown-up director, but you can’t help wishing it had some of the gumption of old.
The Lovely Bones is out January 21.
Wacko Jacko
Will we ever see the return of the splatter king?
Bad Taste (1987)
Before big budgets and respectability came calling, Jackson specialised in shoestring budgets and splat-stick gore films. Here, aliens land to get (human) ingredients for their intergalactic diner. Cue a local Kiwi militia fightback.
Curious fact: Jackson made all the alien masks in his mother’s kitchen.
Meet the Feebles (1989)
Possibly the single weirdest film ever made. Essentially a parody of The Muppet Show, it’s crass, violent, rude, funny, slightly disturbing and it was all made with puppets.
Curious fact: All the cars used in the film are Morris Minors.
Braindead (1992)
Damn that Sumatran rat-monkey virus! This zombiefest is still considered one of the best horror films ever made – albeit usually by teenage boys or fat, middle-aged guys in Iron Maiden T-shirts.
Curious fact: Jackson cameos, having his arms hacked off by panicked Skull Island tour guides.
