Peter Jackson

A new supersized project from Peter Jackson is slowly but surely making its way over the horizon: Jackson is producing a film based on Philip Reeve’s dystopian steampunk adventure book Mortal Engines, and the cast is gradually filling out. The latest addition is someone who’s become a bit of a Jackson regular — Hugo Weaving, also known as either Elrond or Agent Smith or V, depending on which kind of genre fiction you prefer, has joined the cast of the movie.

Peter Jackson’s been laying low as he’s prepared for his grand return to the director’s chair. Three years have passed since his final dalliance with the Hobbit series of films, and he’s been slowly building steam over the past few months for his next epic undertaking, Mortal Engines, an adaptation of the young adult novel series from Philip Reeve. It sounds like a typically ambitious project for Jackson, recreating the books’ colossal engine-powered mobile cities, but he’s raring and ready to go. And today brings him one step closer to an actual start of production as he ramps up his casting with three new additions — a “hey, that guy!” character actor, a musical sensation, and an unknown.

If you saw 2005’s King Kong, you saw the great ape take on a giant T. rex. But did you know that scene was a close recreation of a similar battle in the original 1933 King Kong? In fact, both versions end with Kong playing with the jaw of the dead dinosaur. (Spoiler alert.) That’s just one of the facts featured in the newest episode of You Think You Know Movies!

Peter Jackson, never one to shy away from ambitious literary adaptations, is back at it again with Mortal Engines, the first book in Philip Reeve’s sprawling steampunk-science fiction epic series about a dystopian world that’s home to giant cities that travel the land on wheels. Now, his film has an official holiday-friendly release date of December 14, 2018.

Peter Jackson has been pretty much out of the spotlight since his Hobbit trilogy wrapped, but he’s ready to start on his next project, and, surprise, it’s another ambitious literary adaptation. Jackson and his Lord of the Rings crew, including Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, are teaming up again to bring Philip Reeve’s four-part Mortal Engines series to the big screen.

Following the epic (and epically not great) Hobbit trilogy, we all kind of assumed that Peter Jackson would take a little break from filmmaking. A blockbuster trilogy is exhausting and the guy has clearly earned a good nap or two. In news that may come as a bit of a surprise, it looks like the filmmaker is not only planning a new project, but he’s already begun working on it in secret — well, not so secret anymore, as Steven Spielberg has spilled the beans.

Last week, we took note of a new business venture called Screening Room spearheaded by Napster founder Sean Parker. The proposed service would digitally stream the latest major-studio theatrical releases into the confines of private American homes for a hefty estimated fee of $50 on the same day as in-theater premieres, rendering a trip to the local cineplex less necessary than ever. Naturally, this radical new strategy would change the entire face of the industry, and has accordingly raised hackles on the production, distribution, and exhibition sides of Hollywood. As movie theaters struggle to stay relevant and profitable, Parker’s every press conference sounds like a death knell. And this weekend, both sides of this instantly contentious debate dug in their heels on their positions.

Whether or not Peter Jackson wound up burnt out in directing The Hobbit trilogy, few would argue the Lord of the Rings aficionado has had ample time to prepare a long-rumored Doctor Who collaboration. That day may finally have arrived, as Jackson just stopped short of confirming his work on Season 10, with Peter Capaldi himself.

A video surfaced yesterday of behind the scenes footage from The Hobbit, in which Peter Jackson and several of his crew members are surprisingly honest about how rushed they were on the production, with Jackson admitting that he was “winging it.” Given how underwhelming The Hobbit trilogy turned out to be, those comments sure did make a lot of sense to fans desperate for an explanation. But according to Jackson’s spokesman, that video is misleading.

In news that will not come as a shock to anyone who actually sat through all three films and 400 hours of The Hobbit, Peter Jackson now admits that he was “winging it” through much of the production, and that even the scripts for the movies weren’t finished to his “satisfaction.”