AN OLD JOKE NEEDS UPDATING FOR TODAYS MOVIE WORLD with apologies to a certain 800-pound gorilla. Q. Where does Peter Jackson sit? A. Anywhere he wants.
After the Lord of the Rings trilogy brought in billions of dollars and nearly as many Oscars, Jackson could have made any movie he wanted. In 1997, Universal killed his remake of the mythic 1933 classic, King Kong, but by 2003, they were so eager to make amends, they gave him a new megadeal that brought in $20 million for himself, Fran Walsh (his collaborator and the mother of his children) and Philippa Boyens (her screenwriting partner). The lure of the material? Boyens says simply: Kong is pure cinema. Or from the studios point of view, the original blockbuster. Still, Jackson made a lot of decisions guaranteed to get the studio executives nervous, beginning with his casting of non-action stars: Jack Black as ambitious film director Carl Denham, Adrien Brody as heroic writer Jack Driscoll and Naomi Watts as monkey-lust object Ann Darrow (the part made famous by Fay Wray). More factors to keep those executives sleepless, thousands of miles away from New Zealand: Jacksons resolute determination to set the movie in the Thirties, a budget that ballooned from $150 million to more than $200 million and a running time that grew from two hours to three hours (nearly double the length of the 1933 original). Kong is now landing into thousands of theaters with a mighty roar, but back in November, when Rolling Stone went to New Zealand to interview Jackson, things were in a less assured state. Just ten days before the final print needed to be delivered to Universal, dozens of complex special-effects shots had yet to be completed; animators had been working hundred-hour weeks for months straight and got sent home when they started hallucinating from exhaustion.
On an anonymous suburban street of Wellington, New Zealand, across the road from some grotty warehouses, Jackson has built a lovely art-deco production facility. (His other greatest extravagances: a couple of expensive cars and placing the entire Bag End set from Rings in the back yard of his country home.) In a large screening room, Jackson sits barefoot on a leather couch, looking exhausted but focused, overseeing the final sound mix. By his left hand are bowls filled with grapes and strawberries, both of which he compulsively pops into his mouth. Its all part of the Jackson diet plan the director, once famously as roly-poly as a hobbit, is now at least seventy pounds lighter. That doesnt mean hes gone Hollywood or at least not much. Whereas he previously would sometimes wear the same shirt for a week at a time, he now has three woolly shirts that he keeps in perpetual rotation. Todays color: gray.
Through it all, Jackson the film geeks film geek had one main goal. I try to be selfish, Jackson says. This is a remake of Kong that Id like to go see.
How are you holding up?
Im full of anticipation, but Im totally exhausted. Its not really about the film at the moment. Its about the mechanics of mixing this reel today, and the logistics of getting the color timing done for Reel Six at seven oclock in the morning.
The last time we spoke, at the end of Lord of the Rings, you told me, I never want to make a three-hour film again in my life.
I remember saying that. Its still true: I never want to make another three-hour film again. Until two months ago, we had no idea we were making a film that would be this long. All our planning, budgeting and scheduling was designed around one that was maybe two hours, fifteen minutes. It wasnt a particularly long script. I dont know what happened it was a surprise to us. But at a certain point, you cant shoehorn the film into a certain length its about telling the story, moment by moment.
Universal must have freaked out when you told them it was going to be three hours long.
We were lucky, because they took it well. When we screened it for them, half their notes were about putting back scenes wed shown them earlier but had taken out to get the length down.
Given that the 1933 original film still exists, why do a remake?
Thats a very fair question. I have a pet answer: Theres a generation today who dont watch black-and-white films anymore. You have to be captivated by something, and even my own kids dont have the patience for the 1930s style of storytelling and acting and special effects. But the real reason is that Ive been wanting to make this ever since I first saw King Kong. I mean, I first tried when I was twelve. I built a cardboard model of the Empire State Building and a little model of Kong, about a foot tall. Hes gone a bit rotten, but Ive still got him. Ill bring him in and show you, if you come around tomorrow. Hes a little decomposing chap made out of wire armature. My mom gave me a fur stole I chopped it up and glued it on. Then I shot him with my parents Super 8 camera.
Did you first see Kong in a theater?
On TV. We never had any revival houses here, really. When I was a kid, we had one television station and it was pretty boring. Lots of British World War II movies with John Mills and Dickie Attenborough stiff upper lips. But one Friday night, Kong was on. I watched it, and I wanted to become a filmmaker ever since. Making this movie, I was trying to relate as much as I could to the nine-year-old version of me who first saw Kong; I wanted to make sure that it wasnt made by an old, jaded guy.
Why did King Kong have such a huge impact on you?
I was already in love with fantasy and escapist entertainment and special effects. And in Kong, I just experienced the most perfect bit of escapism thats ever been created. It had everything that a nine-year-old would want: I mean, dinosaurs on an uncharted island! But most importantly, I cried when Kong fell off the Empire State Building. So it showed me what film entertainment could be: It could have outrageous adventure, but it could also move you in a profound way. And thats always what I aspired to.
King Kong has attracted a lot of intellectual theorizing over the years: Kong is a Christ figure, Kong is the black man in chains, Kong is a manifestation of fear about Darwinism
I dont get into that sort of thing. Ive been collecting Kong books all my life, but some of them I just look at the pictures. There are a lot of people who love to look into the meanings of anything in movies it happens with me a lot in France. But I dont like Kong because it has any intellectual resonance I like it because its a cool monster movie with dinosaur fights, and he gets to battle biplanes on top of the Empire State Building.
Were certainly aware of what story were telling. Theres interesting things about the exploitation of nature and the way that Kong is ripped out of this natural environment to be exploited by humans. And this is as far as I go into analyzing it: The story is about a creature who has never empathized with any other living being, and the second that he does, hes doomed. The worst thing that Kong ever does is decide to protect Ann Darrow. Thats a terrible tragedy.
It occurs to me that the great movie monsters were all misunderstood.
Yeah. Well, one of the things that we have tried to do with our Kong is to make him not really a monster but a gorilla. Andy Serkis, who did the motion capture of Kong, went to study families of gorillas in the Rwandan mountains. I didnt have that experience, but I watched every single documentary I could find. Being filmmakers, we manipulate the truth to whatever we want it to be, but I think its important that everything have a basis of truth. Gorillas have a strong code in maintaining eye contact and whos allowed to have it and where you avert your eyes. We used a lot of that. Every moment that Kong makes eye contact with Naomi in our movie is a moment that weve discussed and talked about.
Before you had even finished the script, you had started working on that amazing twenty-minute sequence where Kong fights the T. rex.
That scene was fun, but it was intimidating. The T. rex fight in the original film is one of the great pieces of stop-motion animation ever. I think thats one of the reasons I did the cowardly thing and decided to make it three T. rexes. Not that three is better than one, but I figured at least we can up the ante and make it more chaotic. I dont know how well you know the original Kong movie
Not as well as you.
We did pay homage. At the end of the fight in his movie, Kong kills the dinosaur and then pulls its mouth open to see if its dead. [Original animator] Willis OBrien eked this brilliant performance out of these puppets moved frame by frame, and created a moment where Kong is pondering the existence of life and death. He has almost a childlike curiosity. I had our animators copy OBriens animation for a few frames, just to nail the same moment.
You have a lot of continuity in terms of your collaborators, but unlike some other directors, you dont really have a repertory company of actors.
The irony is that Id really like to. We thought about using Lord of the Rings actors on Kong; at the end of the day, the characters on Kong didnt quite fit any of them. Obviously, Andy Serkis worked out, but he was the only one. Wed always wanted to work with Naomi, and as Carl Denham evolved, Jack Black seemed just right for his role.
In the original film, Jack Driscoll was this slightly lunkheaded first mate of the ship. We needed to change that, because we couldnt figure out how the romantic relationship would work. Ann obviously likes Kong and wants to protect him, but she doesnt love Kong she loves Jack. Its a strange little triangle. And we didnt want a macho character to be occupying the space of the Driscoll character, because Kong is the alpha male and it would be this clash of these two macho guys. So we thought it was interesting to make Driscoll a more intellectual character, and Adrien seemed absolutely right for that. So I figure I do have a repertory company: Its just gotten bigger because Ive got all my Kong actors in it now.
How did you lose all this weight?
I just ate less and I ate healthy. I went on a crash soup diet for a while. I deliberately stopped eating meat for a while, and then I lost my taste for it entirely. Im not a vegetarian for moral reasons, but I cant eat meat anymore.
So whats next?
Its been ten years on these two projects, Lord of the Rings and Kong. Thats a big chunk of my working life and its going to be an incredible sense of freedom next year, to suddenly be allowed to think of new things. Were planning on doing the Alice Sebold novel, The Lovely Bones. But we want to just ease the schedule a little bit and take some time to rest. With Lord of the Rings and Kong, we had to lay the rails in front of the train as it was bearing down behind us. This time, were not going to let the schedule drive the process, and we can repair our brain cells slightly. I feel like Ive got a constipated brain from sheer exhaustion right now, my imagination is blobby and globular.
Is your lawsuit with New Line over the Lord of the Rings profit-sharing still happening?
Yeah. I dont like the idea of suing New Line at all these people are my friends, and Im hoping I can work with them again. But you have an audit, which is a perfectly standard procedure, and the accountants have a difference of opinion, and they say, Lets get somebody independent to make a decision, and these so-called lawsuits happen. But there really isnt anything personal in it.
And whats the status of The Hobbit?
New Line have the rights to produce a film of The Hobbit, but it has to be distributed by MGM. If you remember, about six or eight months ago, MGM was bought by Sony, which was frustrating, because it looked like Time Warner [New Lines parent corporation] was going to be the buyer and then all the rights wouldve been in the family. But now Sony and New Line will have to talk to each other. I keep asking about it, just out of interest, but they havent sat down yet. Hopefully someday the phone will ring Hey, lets do The Hobbit which Id be perfectly happy to do.
Youre also executive-producing the movie adaptation of the video game Halo. Was that so you can keep your effects people and support staff employed?
Yeah. Weve got this infrastructure down here, which is designed to help a director make very complicated films. I dont really want to lose this team. Ive never been an executive producer before, so I must confess to not knowing exactly what my responsibilities are, but the way Im imagining it, I get to sit around suggesting ideas, but I dont have to get up at 6:30 in the morning and go to the set for twelve hours. This time, other people get to do the hard work and I have the fun. Plus Im a huge Halo fan.
When do you have time to play video games?
At night and on the weekends. I made sure I got Halo 2 the first day it was in stores. I dont really get that excited about most films anymore. I dont know whether its because I make them or because Im just not that excited about the ones being made. But Halo reminded me of what it was like when I was a kid waiting for the next James Bond film to come out or the next Ray Harryhausen film: three weeks to go, two weeks to go
Obviously youve got a lot more money than you used to. How has that changed your life?
I dont know, because I havent had a life. Im looking forward to finding out. We got to build this facility and make our films here. Every time I show up at work, I quietly thank all the Lord of the Rings fans who went to see the films, because it meant we could build this place.
Whats the difference between Lord of the Rings fans and King Kong fans?
Kong fans arent so into the fancy dress [costumes]. It gets sweaty inside that gorilla suit. Yes, its pretty hot in there. Theyre all very nice people. Theres no need for them to fight with each other or resort to any form of violence.
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