ith the release of the third and final Lord of the Rings film, The Return of the King, New Zealand director Peter Jackson finds himself with a little time on his hands for the first time since he undertook the epic project seven years ago. But not for long: He's gearing up to direct an update of the classic 1933 SF movie King Kong, which he said is his favorite movie.
In the meantime, Jackson will prepare an extended cut of King for eventual release on DVD, restoring key scenes, including one featuring Christopher Lee's Saruman character, which had to be cut from King's theatrical release. And there's the marathon press tour, which will take Jackson from New Zealand to the United States, Europe and Japan.
The success of Rings has transformed Jackson from a relatively unknown director to a national hero in his native country and one of the highest-paid and most sought-after directors in Hollywood. Jackson took a moment to speak with Science Fiction Weekly about his personal and artistic journey with Lord of the Rings.
Tell us about the world premiere in your hometown of Wellington, New Zealand, earlier this month.
Jackson: The premiere in New Zealand was unbelievable: 100,000 people and a big street parade. It felt like the whole country was coming out to give us a big party, which was really nice. It was great, because there was no cynicism. It was just a genuine outpouring of national pride, which is pretty strong, actually.
Can you talk about carrying the mantle for New Zealand? How has that affected you and your family?
Jackson: It's becoming increasingly difficult to have a normal life there, for sure. I haven't had a life, really, for two, three years, because I've been so busy. I've literally been sleeping, getting up, driving to work, working, going home and sleeping, and having as much time as I can with the kids at home and things. I'm probably at a point where it's tough to go out shopping and go to the movies and do normal things now, because I have people coming up to me all the time, always very pleasant, always nice and supportive, but you can't walk 100 yards. It takes you an hour to get anywhere you want to go. I'm aware of that. It just means I stay at home a lot more. I don't know what my life's going to be like in the future. But it's getting a bit tough.
Is there a way to sum up what Return of the King means for you as a filmmaker? This last movie is the reason you did the trilogy in the first place, isn't it?
Jackson: Any time you make a movie, it's because you want people to see it and enjoy it. ... Every time you start a film, there's always a degree of excitement, because you want to see it. That's what you're striving to do. The trilogy's all about the third film, really. What's the point of doing any of the others? The two films exist because you're reaching that third chapter. That's the one that defines the previous two and puts them in context. Prior to now, they haven't had a context. Fellowship [of the Ring] was the beginning. Two Towers was the difficult middle chapter. ... And now you have the third film. Suddenly, everything has a context now. It's the point of the whole exercise. It has closure, too. It has a strong sense of closure. It's tough for the actors as well, because they're feeling emotional seeing the movie, because the movie's emotional. The movie finishes it off, and it sort of represents the ending of all of our journeys. We've all become friends on this project. It's all finishing at the same time, both onscreen and offscreen. It's everything I hoped it would be. I hoped it would be sad, that it would capture something of that sadness of the book. But sadness in a way that's not a downer. It's just sad, but you're happy that they achieved what they set out to do. But there was a price to be paid.
People have drawn a parallel between the story of the films and the making of the movies. This moment is like seeing you as Frodo, with the Ring as this massive movie project you were bearing. Did you ever see yourself that way?
Jackson: Yeah. I didn't think about it in those terms, but I can see the comparisons. It took Frodo 14 months to reach Mount Doom. It took us seven years, and fortunately we didn't have trolls after us. Producers maybe, but not trolls.
Tell us about the decision to cut the Saruman scene.
Jackson: The Saruman sequence, which is seven minutes long, [comes] at the end of The Two Towers, and it was always [intended to be] in The Two Towers [film]. It never was in Return of the King. The scene was never in the script. It was a scene we shot for The Two Towers, and when we cut that movie last year, we tried it then. But we felt it was anticlimactic to the extent how deep was the end of the movie and what's next is you wanted to get out of the film as fast as you could. Because people had been there for three hours already, and you just wanted to wrap it up. We had some Gollum scenes that we had to wrap up the film at the end with. So the seven minutes of return to Isengard, I didn't feel like it was a good place to have it.
Then I thought it was possible we could have it at the beginning of Return of the King, so we kept it back for that reason. We didn't put it in the DVD of The Two Towers, which was possibly one place for it. But we felt like there was a potential it could be at the beginning of this movie. It's been in this movie as we've gone through various cuts through the year. We had a four-hour, 15-minute cut of Return of the King with everything in there that we shot. But it was too long. It felt like the emotional impact of the film was being diluted. ... So we started trimming the film back, and the Saruman scene was one of many scenes we cut. Obviously, an hour of the film has been cut out of the theatrical version to get the length down. The length to me was totally related to the emotional impact of the last 20-30 minutes, and I wanted that to be as strong as it could. The longer the film was, the less strong it got, because you felt like you'd been there for too long.
Can you clear up how you broke the news to Christopher Lee about not being in the theatrical release?
Jackson: Everything I've read on the Net is completely wrong. I read that he learned through an Internet site, which is completely wrong. There were phone calls, faxes. He's fine, but he's got a Web site with fans who've started a petition, which I don't think is necessarily in his best interest to have a petition starting up. I don't think it was Christopher for a second that drove that. I think it was just fans. It just brings a lot of publicity to it that he's not really feeling that way, but his fans are fighting the battle. And it brings a lot of unnecessary publicity to it. But the scene's great, and it will be on the DVD, and everyone will get a chance to see it. It's a good scene, and at least it will complete the story in terms of the three films.
What can we expect on the extended-version DVD of Return of the King?
Jackson: The extended versions are interesting, because I do the extended versions for the fans, really. To me, every time I put a scene in it, it's mucking up the momentum. The theatrical versions are very carefully worked out. We spent a whole year trying to get the best possible cut. I do the extended cuts because we have 30-40 minutes of footage that people are interested in. Fans of the books. It's usually related to something that's in the book. It's a legitimate part of the adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, and you can either have it lost forever or you can put an extended cut out. So I do these extended cuts, thinking that people will like to see these scenes. But I'm aware every time I put something in, "Is the momentum of the scene going to be slow?" "This is going to slow the first act down." Every time I think I'm spoiling the film. But I'm doing it, because people want to see it, and they'll see it in their home.
The DVD has a different dynamic. You can watch it over two nights, or you can pause it and make a cup of tea. The whole pacing on the DVD seems to have a different requirement or level of commitment from the audience. Then I read these reviews that say this is so much better than the theatrical version. And I think, "Oh, God!" The big question is if you took this three-hour-and-40-minute version of The Two Towers and released it in the cinemas, what would people have thought of it? Everyone would have criticized it for being too long. Yet on video, they think it's better. I'm finding it fascinating, because it's new. It's a whole different development in filmmaking that's [come about] because of the new technology and the way DVDs are establishing themselves.
In your mind, what's the definitive version of these films?
Jackson: The theatrical versions are the definitive versions. I regard the extended cuts as being a novelty for the fans that really want to see the extra material.
What happened to you on the last day? Did somebody do something special for you?
Jackson: They did the same thing for me, which was really touching. It was a complete surprise. Back in May-June, when we were shooting pickups and we had most of the actors in for a few days of shooting, each of them at different times, ... we had like 15 farewells. For each actor it was emotional, because it was either Elijah [Wood]'s last day or Liv [Tyler]'s last day or Ian [McKellen] or Viggo [Mortensen]. .. We had to go through it 15 times each day.
It was a traumatic period of shooting, actually. We had a party for each person individually as they finished, and a blooper reel. What they did for me, they waited until the wrap party. Of course, most of the actors had already left, because they had finished earlier. By the time we had the wrap party, there weren't too many people around, other than the crew. Then they had a blooper of me. They put it to music. They had some Beatles music and cut it together."You Gotta Carry That Weight." Most of the actors, we tried to give them a prop that was synonymous with their characters. In most cases it was a sword for the guys. With Liv, we gave her a dress and her ears. ... The cameo I did in Fellowship of the Ring was I was in the street of Bree, and I was eating a carrot. So they gave me a framed carrot. I thought, "Viggo got a sword. How come I can't have a sword?" I wish I had done a cameo with a sword. I didn't, so I got a carrot.
Why are you doing King Kong?
Jackson: It's one movie. Anything that's one movie now feels mighty attractive. Kong is a project we started in 1996, before Rings. We were working on Kong for eight months. Universal was worried about Mighty Joe Young and Godzilla, [which] were in production at the same time. So they pulled the plug on Kong. Fortunately, we had Lord of the Rings set up with Miramax at that stage, so we were able to jump straight into that project [which eventually transferred to New Line]. But it's always been unfinished business with us. It's always been a project I wanted to make, because I'm a big fan of the first one. It's my favorite movie.
Why do it again?
Jackson: There's a legitimate reason to do it again now. Because I think the young generation, teenagers, basically, are the first generation that's not interested in looking at black-and-white movies. Our generation grew up with classic films and watched black-and-white films on TV or whatever. But you try to put a kid in front of a black-and-white film now, they don't want to know about it, especially something as old-fashioned as '33 Kong, with the dialogue and performances and things. We've reached a point where King Kong isn't going to be watched by young kids. It's done. It's a good time to remake it with technology and try to retain the heart of the original film. We're keeping [the setting] in the '30s.
Will you be using Andy Serkis doing the same technique as he did with Gollum for Kong?
Jackson: We haven't finalized any of that yet. I'm interested in somebody representing Kong, to be there on his behalf on set.
Will you have other Rings cast members in the film?
Jackson: I'm not sure, because we haven't written the script yet. I'd love to do one of those [Martin] Scorsese things, where you use the same group of actors in film after film, because these actors are so fantastic. So if it's not Kong, I just hope after Kong I'd love to work with them all again, no matter how long it takes. That would be great.
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