Peter Jackson
Imagine a film career that begins with gross-out blood, gore and violent cult films, then moves to create a work of arthouse beauty, and now has a tying record for the most Oscars - this is the career of Peter Jackson. Born in 1961, the New Zealand native began his career with the comedic horrors of Bad Taste (1987), Meet the Feebles (1989), and Dead Alive (1992). As crass as these films were, his next film gained an audience for its subtlety, Heavenly Creatures (1994), which won the Venice Film Festival’s Silver Lion, an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, and launched the career of Kate Winslet. Jackson’s The Frighteners (1996) and Forgotten Silver (1996) could not anticipate what would come next: the trilogy of films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Filmed simultaneously beginning in 1999, The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003) won a total of twenty Oscars. The Return of the King won eleven, tying a record with Ben Hur and Titanic for most Oscars for one film, with three Oscars for Jackson including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Jackson broke another record for a director’s financial deal with his next film, a remake of the 1933 King Kong. Jackson continues to expand his career through film producing, directing, exploring 3-D technologies, and creating games for Microsoft.
