Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
New Zealand soldiers encampment at Anzac Cove in 1915
Active	1915–1916
Country	Australia New Zealand
Branch	Army
Type	Administrative Corps
Part of	Mediterranean Expeditionary Force
Nickname	ANZAC
Anniversaries	Anzac Day
Commanders
Notable commanders	William Birdwood

The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was a First World War army corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force that was formed in Egypt in 1915 and operated during the Battle of Gallipoli. General William Birdwood commanded the corps, which comprised troops from the First Australian Imperial Force and 1st New Zealand Expeditionary Force. The corps was disbanded in 1916 following the Allied evacuation of the Gallipoli peninsula and the formation of I Anzac Corps and II Anzac Corps.

Formation of ANZAC[link]

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Plans for the formation began in November 1914 while the first contingent of Australian and New Zealand troops were still in convoy bound for, as they thought, Europe. However, following the experiences of the Canadian Expeditionary Force encamped on Salisbury Plain, it was decided not to subject the Australians and New Zealanders to the English winter and so they were diverted to Egypt for training before moving on to the Western Front in France. The British Secretary of State for War, Horatio Kitchener, appointed General William Birdwood, an officer of the British Indian Army, to the command of the corps and he furnished most of the corps staff from the Indian Army as well. Birdwood arrived in Cairo on 21 December 1914 to assume command of the corps.

It was originally intended to name the corps the Australasian Army Corps, this title being used in the unit diary, following the common practice of the time, which often saw New Zealanders and Australians compete together as Australasia in sporting events. However, protests from New Zealand led adoption of the name Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The administration clerks found the title too cumbersome so quickly adopted the abbreviation A. & N.Z.A.C. or simply ANZAC. Shortly afterwards it was officially adopted as the codename for the corps but it did not enter common usage amongst the troops until after the Gallipoli landings.

At the outset, the corps comprised one complete division, the Australian 1st Division, the New Zealand Infantry Brigade and two mounted brigades—the Australian 1st Light Horse Brigade and the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade (NZMR). Another convoy transporting an Australian infantry brigade (the 4th) and two light horse brigades arrived shortly afterwards. Initially the brigades were arranged by combining the two extra infantry brigades into the "New Zealand Division" and the mounted brigades into the "Mounted Division" but this was deemed unsatisfactory. Instead the New Zealand and Australian Division was formed with the two infantry brigades plus two mounted brigades (1st Light Horse Brigade and NZMR Brigade). The remaining light horse brigades became corps troops. These two divisions would remain the core of ANZAC for the duration of its existence.

Despite being synonymous with Australia and New Zealand, ANZAC was a multi-national body. In addition to the many British officers in the corps and division staffs, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps contained, at various points, the 7th Brigade of the Indian Mountain Artillery, Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps troops, the Zion Mule Corps, 4 battalions from the Royal Naval Division, the British 13th (Western) Division, one brigade of the British 10th (Irish) Division and the 29th Indian Infantry Brigade.

Later formations of ANZAC[link]

Monument in Sfakia commemorating the evacuation of British and ANZAC forces from Crete in late May 1941. Click on the left plaque for a closer view

Following the evacuation of Gallipoli in November 1915, the Australian and New Zealand units reassembled in Egypt. The New Zealand contingent expanded to form their own division; the New Zealand Division. The First Australian Imperial Force underwent a major reorganisation resulting in the formation of two new divisions; the 4th and 5th divisions. (The Australian 3rd Division was forming in Australia and would be sent directly to England and then to France.) These divisions were reformed into two corps; I ANZAC Corps and II ANZAC Corps.^[1] I ANZAC Corps, under the command of General Birdwood, departed for France in early 1916. II ANZAC Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General Alexander Godley, followed soon after.

In January 1916, the 4th (ANZAC) Battalion, Imperial Camel Corps with Australian and New Zealand troops was formed, the 1st and 3rd battalions were Australian and the 2nd Battalion British.^[2] Then in March 1916, the ANZAC Mounted Division with three Australian and one New Zealand brigade, was formed for service in Egypt and Palestine.^[1] There was also the 1st (ANZAC) Wireless Signal Squadron, which served with the British expeditionary force in Mesopotamia in 1916–17.^[1]

During World War II, the Australian I Corps HQ was moved to Greece in April 1941. As the corps also controlled the New Zealand 2nd Division (along with Greek and British formations), it was officially renamed ANZAC Corps in April.^[1] The Battle of Greece was over in weeks and the corps HQ left Greece on 23–24 April, with the name ANZAC Corps no longer being used.^[3]

Some troops were evacuated to Alexandria but the majority were sent to Crete in order to reinforce its garrison against an expected air and sea German invasion. Australians and New Zealanders were respectively deployed around the cities of Rethymno and Chania in western Crete with a smaller Australian force being positioned in Heraklion. The invasion began the morning of 20 May and after the fierce Battle of Crete that lasted ten days, Crete fell to the Germans. Most of the defenders of Chania withdrew across the island to the south coast and were evacuated by the Royal Navy from Sfakia. Many others evaded capture for several months hiding in the mountains with generous assistance from the local Cretan population.^[4]

During the Vietnam War, two companies from the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment were integrated into Royal Australian Regiment battalions. These integrated battalions had the suffix (ANZAC) added to their name (for example, 4 RAR became the 4RAR/NZ (ANZAC) Battalion).^[1] The ANZAC Battle Group is an active battle group of Australian and New Zealand units deployed to Timor Leste as part of Operation Astute. The battle group was established in September 2006.

Social influence[link]

References[link]

Notes

Sources

• Scanned PDF volumes from the Australian War Memorial of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918:
  • Vol. I – The Story of Anzac: the first phase
  • Vol. II – The Story of Anzac: from 4 May 1915 to evacuation
• Visit Gallipoli: Australian site about Gallipoli and the Anzacs, includes previously unpublished photographs, artworks and documents from Government archives. A site by the Australian Department of Veterans' Affairs.
• New Zealanders at Gallipoli
• Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds (eds.), What's Wrong with ANZAC? The Militarisation of Australian History, Sydney, NewSouth Books, 2010. ISBN 978-1-74223-151-8

External links[link]

• Listen to an excerpt from a simulated recording of Australian troops docking in Egypt after their voyage from Australia to take part in the First World War on australianscreen online.

This recording was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia Registry in 2007

v t e Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) Expeditionary Forces 1st Australian Imperial Force (1st AIF) Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) New Zealand Expeditionary Force (1st NZEF) Corps Australian and New Zealand Army Corps I ANZAC Corps II ANZAC Corps Australian Corps Desert Mounted Corps Divisions Australia 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th Australian Mounted Division ANZAC Mounted Division New Zealand New Zealand Division New Zealand and Australian Division Brigades Australia 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 1st Light Horse 2nd Light Horse 3rd Light Horse 4th Light Horse 5th Light Horse New Zealand New Zealand Rifle Brigade New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade Military history during World War I Australia New Zealand

Adam Brand
Background information
Birth name	Adam Alberto Bruno
Born	(1970-01-27) 27 January 1970 (age 42) Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Origin	Perth, Western Australia
Genres	Country
Occupations	Singer, Songwriter
Years active	1997–present
Labels	Flying Nun Compass Brothers Arista Nashville
Associated acts	Hodad City

Adam Brand (born on 27 January 1970) is an Australian musician who sings country music. Active since 1997, he has released seven studio albums and thirteen singles. His first three albums are all certified platinum in Australia. Brand has made two chart entries, including his first American release, "Ready for Love".

Biography[link]

Adam Brand^[1] (born 27 January 1970 in Perth) first began playing drums at age ten, and followed his father, a travelling salesman, in his teens. Brand moved to Sydney in 1997 and released his first album, a self-titled effort, on Flying Nun Records the following year. The album reached No. 44 on the Australian ARIA album charts^[2] and was certified platinum.^[3] Brand was awarded three CMAA awards in 1999, 'Song of the Year' ("Last Man Standing"), 'New Talent of the Year', and 'Video Track of the Year' after being nominated in five categories.^[4] Brand was nominated for 'Best Country Album' (Adam Brand) at the 1999 ARIA Music Awards.^[5] He also won the 'Johnny O’Keefe Encouragement Award' at the 1999 Mo Awards.

In 2000 he released his next album, Good Friends, which reached No. 26 on the album charts.^[2] Brand received a further CMAA Award for 'Vocal Collaboration of the Year' with Melinda Schneider for "Love Away the Night".^[6] He was also nominated again for 'Best Country Album' (Good Friends) at the 2000 ARIA Awards.^[5] In 2001 Brand won three CMAA Awards for 'Album of the Year', 'Male Vocalist of the Year' and 'Song of the Year'.^[6] He also won a Mo Award this time for 'Male Country Performer of the Year'.

In 2001 he began recording for Compass Brothers Records releasing Built for Speed. The album was released in January 2002 reaching No. 24 on the album charts^[2] and was certified platinum in Australia.^[3][7] He won a further Mo Award for 'Male Country Performer of the Year' that year. In 2003 Brand also won a CMAA Award, 'Heritage Song of the Year', for "The Anzac".

Brand's next album, Get Loud, was released in 2004, debuted at No. 2 on the Australian Country charts and No. 16 on the National Album charts in 2004^[2] and was certified Gold. Get Loud was also nominated as 'Best Country Album' at that year's ARIA Awards.^[5] On 10 October 2005 he released a Christmas themed album, Christmas in Australia.

2006 saw the release of Brand's fifth studio album, What a Life. The album reached No. 28 on the national album charts^[2] and was certified Gold.^[3] Brand received another ARIA nomination for 'Best Country Album' (What a Life) in 2006.^[5] His next album, Blame it on Eve was released in July 2008, peaking at No. 1 on the Australian Country charts and No. 10 on the National Album charts (his highest charting solo album to date).^[2] He also won three CMAA Awards, 'Single of the Year', 'Vocal Collaboration of the Year' and 'Video Clip of the Year' with Lee Kernaghan and Steve Forde for "Spirit of the Bush", in 2008.^[6]

In 2009 he released Hell of a Ride, which peaking at No. 2 on the Australian Country charts and No. 19 on the National Album charts.^[2] Brand also won a CMAA Award 'Male Artist of the Year'.^[6] In September 2009 Brand signed a recording contract with the Nashville based division of Sony Music Entertainment for the distribution of his recordings in the United States.

He featured in season nine of the live Australian reality show Dancing with the Stars, winning the competition on 6 September 2009. He was partnered by professional dancer Jade Hatcher, who Brand married on 31 May 2010.

Brand has been nominated for three CMAA Awards in 2010, 'Album of the Year', 'Single of the Year' and 'Male Artist of the Year'.^[8]

Brand is also a keen fan of motor sport. His song Dirt Track Cowboys is themed around speedway racing and features Speedway commentator Wade Aunger. Brand has also raced, spending several years racing in the V8 Utes category racing Ford Falcon V8s in the early 2000s.^[9][10] Brand recently made a return to racing, competing in the 2011 Eastern Creek Six Hour. Brand and his co-drivers won their class racing a Suzuki Swift.^[11]

Personal life[link]

Adam has been married and divorced twice. At the age of thirty-nine he met his more recent partner Jade Hatcher, then nineteen, on the set of Dancing With The Stars in 2009. They went on to win the competition despite a lower score compared to their competitor, Today Tonight presenter Matt White. Adam and Jade married in May 2010,^[12] but in late 2011 it was announced that she was leaving him and moving out.^[13][14]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Compilation albums[link]

Singles[link]

Guest singles[link]

Music videos[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Adam Brand at Allmusic.com
• MySpace

Sir Peter Jackson
Jackson at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International
Born	(1961-10-31) 31 October 1961 (age 50) Pukerua Bay, New Zealand
Occupation	Film director, film producer, screenwriter
Years active	1976–present
Spouse	Fran Walsh (1987–present)

Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM^[1] (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, who is well known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001 to 2003), adapted from the novel by J. R. R. Tolkien.

He won international attention early in his career with his "splatstick" horror comedies beginning with Bad Taste (1987) before coming to mainstream prominence with Heavenly Creatures (1994), for which he shared an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay nomination with his wife, Fran Walsh. Jackson has been awarded three Academy Awards in his career, including the award for Best Director in 2003; he also won the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Saturn Award for Best Direction the same year.

His films also include Meet the Feebles (1989), Braindead (1992), Forgotten Silver (1995), The Frighteners (1996), King Kong (2005),^[2] The Lovely Bones (2009), and the upcoming The Lord of the Rings prequels The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) and The Hobbit: There and Back Again (2013). He is also the producer of District 9 (2009) and The Adventures of Tintin (2011).

Jackson was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002. He was later knighted (as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit) by then Governor-General Anand Satyanand at a ceremony in Wellington in April, 2010.

Early life[link]

Jackson, an only child, was born on 31 October 1961. He grew up in Pukerua Bay, a coastal town near Wellington. His parents - Joan (born Ruck^[3][4]), a factory worker and housewife, and William (Bill) Jackson, a wages clerk - were both immigrants from England.^[5][6] His father was a veteran of the Siege of Malta in World War II. He is distantly related to Richard Hill^[7] a member of the English 2003 Rugby World Cup winner.

As a child, Jackson was a keen film fan, growing up on Ray Harryhausen films as well as finding inspiration in the television series Thunderbirds and Monty Python's Flying Circus. After a family friend gave the Jacksons a Super 8 cine-camera with Peter in mind, he began making short films with his friends. Jackson has long cited King Kong as his favourite film and around the age of nine he attempted to remake it using his own stop-motion models.^[8] Also as a child Jackson made a WWII epic^{[citation needed]} and a James Bond spoof named Coldfinger.^[9] Most notably though was a 10 minute short called 'The Valley' which won him a special prize because of the shots he used.

In school Jackson expressed no interest (or skill) in sports. His classmates also remember him wearing a Duffel coat with " an obsession verging on religious."

Jackson had no formal training in film-making, but learned about editing, special effects and make-up largely through his own trial and error. As a young adult Jackson discovered the work of author J. R. R. Tolkien after watching The Lord of the Rings (1978), an animated film by Ralph Bakshi that was a part-adaptation of Tolkien's fantasy trilogy.^[10]

When he was 16 years old, Jackson left school and began working full time as a photo-engraver for the local newspaper. For the 7 years he worked there, Jackson lived at home with his parents so he could save as much money as possible to spend on filming equipment. After two years of work Jackson bought a 16 mm camera, and began shooting a short film that later became Bad Taste.^[11]

Career[link]

The splatter period[link]

Over four years (from 1983 to 1987) Jackson's first feature, Bad Taste, grew in haphazard fashion from a short film into a 90-minute splatter comedy, with many of Jackson's friends acting and working on it for free. Shooting was normally done in the weekends since Jackson was now working full-time. Bad Taste is about aliens that come to earth with the intention of turning humans into food. Jackson had two acting roles including a famous scene in which he fights himself on top of a cliff.

The film was finally completed thanks to a late injection of finance from the New Zealand Film Commission, after Jim Booth, the body's executive director, became convinced of Jackson's talent (Booth later left the Commission to become Jackson's producer). In May 1987, Bad Taste was unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival, where rights to the film quickly sold to twelve countries.

Around this time Peter Jackson began working on writing a number of film scripts, in varied collaborative groupings with playwright Stephen Sinclair, writer Fran Walsh and writer/actor Danny Mulheron. Walsh would later become his wife. Some of the scripts from this period, including a sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street, have never been made into movies; the proposed zombie film Braindead underwent extensive rewrites.

Jackson's next film to see release was Meet the Feebles (1989), co-written by the four writers mentioned above. An ensemble musical comedy starring Muppet-style puppets, Meet the Feebles originally began as a short film intended for television, but was rapidly expanded into a full-length film after unexpected enthusiasm from Japanese investors, and the collapse of Braindead, six weeks before filming. Begun on a very low budget, Meet the Feebles went weeks over schedule. Jackson stated of his second feature length film, "It's got a quality of humour that alienates a lot of people.. It's very black, very satirical, very savage."^[12] Feebles marked Jackson's first collaboration with special effects team Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger, who would later work on all Jackson's movies.

Jackson's next release was the horror comedy Braindead (1992) (released in North America as Dead Alive), now seen as a landmark in splatter movies. Originally planned as a Spanish co-production, the film reversed the usual zombie plot. Rather than keeping the zombies out of his place of refuge, the hero attempts to keep them inside, while maintaining a façade of normality. The film features extensive special effects including miniature trams, stop motion and a plethora of gory make-up effects.

[edit] Heavenly Creatures and Forgotten Silver

Released in 1994 after Jackson won a race to bring the story to the screen, Heavenly Creatures marked a major change for Jackson in terms of both style and tone. The film is based on real-life events: namely the Parker–Hulme murder in which two teenage girls in 1950s Christchurch became close friends, some say lovers, and later murdered the mother of one of the girls. Jackson's partner Fran Walsh helped persuade him that the events had the makings of a movie; Jackson has been quoted saying that the film "only got made" because of her enthusiasm for the subject matter.^[13] Many New Zealanders were apprehensive about how Jackson would treat the material, an apprehension that would later turn in many cases to relief. The film's fame coincided with the New Zealand media tracking down the real-life Juliet Hulme, who now wrote books under the name Anne Perry. Jackson would cast the actors Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet in the roles of Parker and Hulme. Heavenly Creatures received considerable critical acclaim, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and making top ten of the year lists in Time, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The New Zealand Herald.

The success of Heavenly Creatures won Jackson attention from US company Miramax, who promoted the film vigorously in America and signed the director to a first-look deal.

The following year, in collaboration with Wellington film-maker Costa Botes, Jackson co-directed the mockumentary Forgotten Silver (1995). This ambitious made-for-television piece told the story of New Zealand film pioneer Colin McKenzie, who had supposedly invented colour film and 'talkies', and attempted an epic film of Salome before being forgotten by the world. Though the programme played in a slot normally reserved for drama, no other warning was given that it was fictionalised. Many were outraged at discovering Colin McKenzie had never existed. Some have argued that the number of people who believed the increasingly improbable story provides testimony to Jackson and Botes' skill at playing on New Zealand's national myth of a nation of innovators and forgotten trail-blazers.^[14]

In the meantime, Jackson and Walsh had two children, Billy (1995) and Katie (1996).

Hollywood, Weta, and the Film Commission[link]

A drawing of Peter Jackson, surrounded by characters and objects from his films

The success of Heavenly Creatures helped pave the way for Jackson's first big budget Hollywood film, The Frighteners starring Michael J. Fox, in 1996. Thanks partly to support from American producer Robert Zemeckis, Jackson was given permission to make this comedy/horror film entirely in New Zealand despite being set in a North American town. This period was a key one of change for both Jackson and Weta Workshop, the special effects company — born from the one man contributions of George Port to Heavenly Creatures — with which Jackson is often associated. Weta, initiated by Jackson and key collaborators, grew rapidly during this period to incorporate both digital and physical effects, make-up and costumes, the first two areas normally commanded by Jackson collaborator Richard Taylor.

The Frighteners was regarded as a commercial failure. Some critics^[who?] expressed disappointment that it displayed little of the anarchistic humor of Jackson's early movies and that the script felt underdeveloped.^{[citation needed]} In February 1997, Jackson launched legal proceedings against the New Zealand Listener magazine for defamation, over a review of The Frighteners which claimed that the film was "built from the rubble of other people's movies".^[15] In the end, the case was not pursued further. Around this time Jackson's remake of King Kong was shelved by Universal Studios, partly because of Mighty Joe Young and Godzilla (1998 film), both giant monster movies, that had already gone into production. Universal feared it would be thrown aside by the two higher budget movies.

This period of transition seems not to have been entirely a happy one; it also marked one of the high points of tension between Jackson and the New Zealand Film Commission since Meet the Feebles had gone over-budget earlier in his career. Jackson has claimed the Commission considered firing him from Feebles, though the NZFC went on to help fund his next three films. In 1997, the director submitted a lengthy criticism of the Commission for a magazine supplement meant to celebrate the body's 20th anniversary, criticising what he called inconsistent decision-making by inexperienced board members. The magazine felt that the material was too long and potentially defamatory to publish in that form; a shortened version of the material went on to appear in Metro magazine.^[16] In the Metro article Jackson criticized the Commission over funding decisions concerning a film he was hoping to executive produce, but refused to drop a client-confidentiality clause that allowed them to publicly reply to his criticisms.

[edit] The Lord of the Rings

Jackson in 2003, at the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in Wellington

Peter Jackson won the rights to film J. R. R. Tolkien's epic in 1997 after meeting with producer Saul Zaentz. Originally working with Miramax towards a two-film production, Jackson was later pressured to render the story as a single film, and finally overcame a tight deadline by making a last minute deal with New Line, who were keen on a trilogy.

Principal photography stretched from 11 October 1999 to 22 December 2000 with extensive location filming across New Zealand. With the benefit of extended post-production and extra periods of shooting before each film's release, the series met huge success and sent Jackson's popularity soaring. The Return of the King itself met with huge critical acclaim, winning eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. The film was the first of the fantasy film genre to win the award for Best Picture and was the second sequel to win Best Picture (the first being The Godfather Part II).

Jackson's mother, Joan, died three days before the release of the first movie in the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. There was a special showing of the film after her funeral.^[17]

Following The Return of the King, Jackson lost a large amount of weight –over 50 pounds (23 kg) to the point of being unrecognisable to some fans. In The Daily Telegraph, he attributed his weight loss to his diet. He said, "I just got tired of being overweight and unfit, so I changed my diet from hamburgers to yogurt and muesli and it seems to work."^[18]

[edit] King Kong

Universal Studios signed Peter Jackson for a second time to remake the 1933 classic King Kong — the film that inspired him to become a film director as a child.^[19] He was reportedly paid a fee of US$20 million upfront, the highest salary ever paid to date to a film director in advance of production, against a 20 percent take of the box-office rentals (the portion of the price of the ticket that goes to the film distributor, in this case Universal). The film was released on 14 December 2005, and grossed around US$550 million worldwide.^[20]

[edit] The Lovely Bones

Jackson completed an adaptation of Alice Sebold's bestseller, The Lovely Bones, which was released in the United States on 11 December 2009.^[21] Jackson has said the film was a welcome relief from his larger-scale epics. The storyline's combination of fantasy aspects and themes of murder bears some similarities to Heavenly Creatures.

The film was an anticipated Best Picture Oscar contender, but ended up receiving poor reviews and middling box office returns. It currently holds 32% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Tintin franchise[link]

Jackson is the main producer on The Adventures of Tintin, directed by Steven Spielberg. He is officially labeled as producer but helped Spielberg, before he began working on The Hobbit, directing the film. He also supervised Weta Digital on the post production of the film. Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis were cast due to their collaboration with Peter Jackson on King Kong and The Lord of the Rings. Spielberg also chose to work with Peter Jackson due to the impressive digital work on the Lord of the Rings films, and knew Peter Jackson's company Weta Workshop would make his vision a reality.

In December 2011, Spielberg confirmed a sequel to his 3D movie will be made and are said to be based on The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun.^[22] He explained the Thompson detectives will "have a much bigger role". The sequel will be produced by Spielberg and directed by Jackson.^[22] Kathleen Kennedy said the script might be done by February or March 2012 and motion-captured in summer 2012, so that the movie will be on track to be released on either Christmas 2014 or summer 2015.^[23] In February 2012, Spielberg revealed to Total Film that they had completed a story outline for the sequel.

Current and future projects[link]

Jackson had talked of producing films for others as early as 1995, but a number of factors slowed developments in this regard, including the failure of Jack Brown Genius (1995). After he became a force in Hollywood, he was set to produce a $128 million movie version of the science fiction video game series Halo, but the project went on hold when financial backers withdrew their support.^[24][25] The failure of Halo however led to what became District 9, which ended up being a box office hit and garnered a Best Picture nomination.

Jackson is set to produce a remake of The Dam Busters, to be directed by longtime Weta designer Christian Rivers and for which Stephen Fry has written a screenplay.^[26][27]

Jackson has also won the rights to a film adaptation of the fantasy novel series Temeraire, a novel about dragons being used in combat in the Napoleonic Wars and a dragon named Temeraire and his captain, Will Laurence, written by Naomi Novik. It remains to be seen if he will direct it.^[28]

Jackson produced District 9, a science fiction project which Neill Blomkamp directed. The script was written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell.^[29]

In recent years, Jackson has also directed a short film entitled Crossing the Line to test a new model of digital cinema camera, the RED ONE. The film takes place during World War I, and was shot in two days. "Crossing the Line" was shown at NAB 2007 (the USA National Association of Broadcasters). Clips of the film can be found at Reduser.net.^[30]

Jackson and his newly formed studio Wingnut Interactive are working on an unrevealed project being developed by Microsoft Game Studios in collaboration with Bungie Studios. The project has been officially titled Halo: Chronicles but beyond speculation little else is known about its nature. He was to be the executive producer on a Halo film, developed and released by Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox but in October 2006 the film was postponed indefinitely. The film was never officially cancelled and in late June 2008 Peter Jackson commented that, "With upcoming developments (Halo: Chronicles), I wouldn't know when to expect a movie, and I'm the producer."

Jackson spent $5 million to purchase 20 hectares of land in Wairarapa, a property containing a mansion, private lake, tunnel and the interior of Bag End from The Lord of the Rings. In 2009, he purchased a Gulfstream G550 jet; his total net worth is estimated by National Business Review at NZ$450 million.^[31] Jackson owns an aircraft restoration and manufacturing company, The Vintage Aviator, which is dedicated to World War I and World War II fighter planes among other planes from the 1920s and 1930s. He is chairman of the Omaka Aviation Heritage Trust, which hosts a biennial air show.^[32] In late December 2009 announced his interest on the movie adaption of the novel Mortal Engines.^[33] In April 2010 it was confirmed that he would be both director and producer of the project and as of May 2010 it is rumoured that WETA has already begun preliminary work on the movie.

[edit] The Hobbit

Jackson's involvement in the making of a film version of The Hobbit, has a long and chequered history. In November 2006, a letter from Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh stated that due to an ongoing legal dispute between Wingnut Films (Jackson's production company) and New Line Cinema, Jackson would not be directing the film.^[34] New Line Cinema's head Robert Shaye commented that Jackson "...will never make any movie with New Line Cinema again while I'm still working at the company...".^[35] This prompted an online call for a boycott of New Line Cinema,^[36] and by August 2007 Shaye was trying to repair his working relationship.^[37] On 18 December 2007, it was announced that Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema had reached agreement to make two prequels, both based on The Hobbit, and to be released in 2012 and 2013 with Jackson as a writer and executive producer and Guillermo del Toro directing.^[38][39]

However, in early 2010, del Toro dropped out of directing the film because of production delays^[40] and a month later Jackson was back in negotiations to direct The Hobbit;^[41] and on October 15 he was finalised as the director^[42][43]—with New Zealand confirmed as the location a couple of weeks later.^[44] The film started production on March 20, 2011.

Games[link]

Jackson was set to make games with Microsoft Game Studios, a partnership announced on 27 September 2006, at X06.^[45] Specifically, Jackson and Microsoft were teaming together to form a new studio called Wingnut Interactive.^[46] In collaboration with Bungie Studios, Jackson was to co-write, co-design and co-produce a new game taking place in the Halo universe - tentatively called Halo: Chronicles. However on 27 July 2009, in an interview about his new movie District 9, he said that Halo: Chronicles had been cancelled, while Microsoft confirmed that the game is "on hold". Jackson's game studio Wingnut Interactive is now at work on original intellectual property.^[47]

Charitable activities[link]

Jackson has given NZ$500,000 to stem cell research.^[48]

He purchased a church in the Wellington suburb of Seatoun for about $10 million, saving it from demolition.^[49]

He also contributes his expertise to 48HOURS, a New Zealand film-making competition, through annually selecting 3 "Wildcards" for the National Final.

Jackson, a World War I aviation enthusiast, is chair of the 14-18 Aviation Heritage Trust.^[50] He donated his services and provided replica aircraft to create a 10 minute multimedia display called Over the Front for the Australian War Memorial in 2008.^[51]

He contributed to the defense fund for the West Memphis Three.^[52]

In 2011, Jackson and Walsh purchased 1 Kent Terrace, the home of BATS Theatre in Wellington, effectively securing the theatre's future.^[53]

Style[link]

Jackson is known for his attention to detail, a habit of shooting scenes from many angles, a macabre sense of humour, and a general playfulness - the latter to the point where The Lord of the Rings conceptual designer Alan Lee jokingly remarked "the film is almost incidental really".^[54]

Jackson was a noted perfectionist on the Lord of the Rings shoot, where he demanded numerous takes of scenes, requesting additional takes by repeatedly saying, "one more for luck".^[55] Jackson is also renowned within the New Zealand film industry for his insistence on "coverage" — shooting a scene from as many angles as possible, giving him more options during editing.^{[citation needed]} Jackson has been known to spend days shooting a single scene. This is evident in his work where even scenes featuring simple conversations often feature a wide array of multiple camera angles and shot-sizes as well as zooming closeups on characters' faces. One of his most common visual trademarks is shooting close-ups of actors with wide-angle lenses.

Unlike some other film directors, Jackson has remained in his native country to make films. This has been the genesis of several production and support companies. Most of Jackson's assets are found on the Miramar Peninsula in his home town of Wellington where much of his filming occurs; and he was instrumental in having the world premiere of The Return of the King in the city's iconic Embassy Theatre which he helped restore.

He was an early user of computer enhancement technology and provided digital special effects to a number of Hollywood films by use of telecommunications and satellite links to transmit raw images and the final results across the Pacific Ocean.^{[citation needed]}

During filming of The Lord of the Rings, Jackson was famous for wearing shorts and going barefoot under most circumstances, especially during film shoots.^[56]

Cameo roles[link]

Jackson usually makes cameo appearances in his own films:

• In The Lovely Bones, he appears as a customer in a camera store playing with a camera.
• Jackson appears as a biplane gunner attacking Kong in New York, reprising the cameo which original King Kong filmmaker Merian C. Cooper made in his 1933 film.
• The Lord of the Rings film trilogy includes multiple cameos. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Jackson plays a drunken, carrot-chomping citizen of Bree. In The Two Towers, he plays a spear-throwing defender of Helm's Deep. In his significant cameo in The Return of the King he is seen as the boatswain of a murderous corsair ship. This character is seen very briefly in the theatrical version. In the extended version he is onscreen for a longer period of time and is accidentally killed by Legolas's "warning shot". A detailed action figure of Jackson was made of this character in the same line as the rest of the Lord of the Rings toys.
• Jackson's second cameo in Return of the King is during the scene of Shelob's Lair, where Sam's arm (Jackson's) is seen entering the shot as Shelob is wrapping Frodo in webbing. This was due to Sean Astin's temporary absence, and Peter wanted to progress the production of the scene as much as possible, even without the actor.^[57]
• In The Frighteners, Jackson is a biker bumped into by Frank Bannister.
• In Heavenly Creatures, he is the bum who gets kissed by Juliet Hulme.
• In Braindead, he is the mortician's assistant.
• In the puppet movie Meet the Feebles, Jackson appears as an audience member disguised as one of the aliens from Bad Taste.^{[citation needed]}

He has also made cameos in several films not directed by him. In the opening sequence of Hot Fuzz (2007), he played a demented man dressed as Father Christmas, who stabs Nicholas Angel (played by Simon Pegg) in the hand.^[58] Pegg, in the commentary, joked that when Jackson saw that his cameo was extremely short, he walked out of the theater and walked in circles in the hallway for the rest of the duration of the film.

Jackson's eldest son, Billy (born 1995), has made cameo appearances in every one of his father's films since his birth, namely The Frighteners (1996), The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, and King Kong. His daughter, Katie (born 1996), appears in all the above films except The Frighteners.

Jackson had a cameo on the HBO show Entourage in 5 August 2007 episode, "Gary's Desk", in which he offers a business proposal to Eric Murphy, manager to the lead character, Vincent Chase.

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Jackson was appointed a Companion in the New Zealand Order of Merit, in the 2002 New Year Honours.^[59] In 2010 he was advanced to Knight Companion of New Zealand. The investiture ceremony took place at Premier House in Wellington on 28 April 2010.^[60]

Bibliography[link]

• Brian Sibley. Peter Jackson- A Film-maker's Journey. Sydney, HarperCollins, 2006. ISBN 0-7322-8562-3.
• Ian Pryor. Peter Jackson- From prince of splatter to lord of the rings. Auckland, Random House, 2003, New York, St. Martin's Press, 2004. ISBN 1-86941-555-8 (NZ Edition)
• Andrea Bordoni, Matteo Marino, "Peter Jackson". Milan, Il Castoro, 2002. ISBN 978-88-8033-225-1. The first book-length study of the director.(Italian)

See also[link]

• Cinema of New Zealand
• List of New Zealand film makers
• Park Road Post
• Weta Workshop
• Weta Digital

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Peter Jackson

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Peter Jackson

• Peter Jackson on Facebook
• Peter Jackson on Charlie Rose
• Peter Jackson at the Internet Movie Database
• Peter Jackson collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• In-depth interview about King Kong and future projects
• Peter Jackson at FEARnet
• Peter Jackson's trip from splatstick to RAF