Posts Tagged ‘Peter Jackson’

Short Take: Beyond its obvious faults it delivers exactly what it advtertises, and then some

Director: Alexandre Aja (High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes (2006))

Screenwriters: Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg (Sorority Row)

Cast: Elizabeth Shue (Hamlet 2), Christopher Lloyd (Camp Nowhere), Ving Rhames (Surrogates), Jerry O’Connell (Obsessed), Adam Scott (TV’s Party Down)

Length: 1h 30m

Synopsis: After a subterranean tremor causes a rift that conjoins a mysterious underwater lake with the aboveground Lake Victoria community, a prehistoric predator proceeds to roam free and eat at will. That predator is the very first breed of Piranha, which are thousands strong and eager to feed on fresh meat. It just so happens that these ferocious fish escape during Spring Break, when every virile teenager and college student within fifty miles is congregating to drink, fornicate, and unknowingly serve themselves up as dinner. Gratuitous nudity and violence ensues on a level not seen in American theaters in some time. Read the rest of this entry »

Joel and Ethan Coen handle directing/producing duties arguably better than anyone

In an article for Variety.com, feature writer Anthony Kaufman sheds light on the world of filmmakers who decide/are able to both direct and produce their movies. People like Peter Jackson, Clint Eastwood, and the Coen brothers are members of an elite group that has won Oscars for both directing and producing, and accomplishing such a feat is even harder than one might think.

The two different, and arguably opposing functions of directors and producers is perhaps the number one reason for the high level of difficulty in doing both. It’s the job of the director to make sure the artistic quality of a film is the highest it can be, and the producer’s job is to manage and organize all aspects connected to a film’s financing. Being that art can be very costly, directors and producers naturally clash every so often during the making of a movie. And aside from this, the simple fact that one person is doing two jobs makes the endeavor daunting.

A positive way of looking at the added responsibility is to say that having to keep both art and practicality in mind while making all decisions is a very useful skill to have because it keeps either from getting out of hand. If a film’s artistic side is met with too few limitations it can make it appealing to too narrow an audience, while if the budget hampers the art’s ability to express itself sufficiently the overall quality of the product suffers.

Director Lee Daniels (Precious) sums up the job of director/producer like this: It’s “powerful, but a powerful curse.” Read more about the job of being a director/producer by clicking on the link below.

Source: Variety

In Other News…

Blake Lively

Gossip Girl and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants star Blake Lively has been cast in Warner Brothers’ Green Lantern. She will reportedly be the romantic interest opposite star Ryan Reynolds, who is playing the supernatural superhero.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Director/Producer Peter Jackson spoke to the press recently at the London premiere of his newest film The Lovely Bones, where he gave away some new details about two of his other projects, The Hobbit (writing and producing) and the Steven Spielberg directed The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn (producing).

The news on both of these films is that Jackson and his writing team have completed the first script of the two-movie hobbit project. Jackson said that he had even more fun than he had anticipated writing the script, and that MGM has stamped it’s sign of approval as well. With Tintin, it appears that filming has completed and Spielberg now enters a two year long period of postproduction (with most of the time being reserved for including the film’s special effects).

Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) will direct The Hobbit, whom Jackson hand picked for the project. The two Hobbit films will release in the Decembers of 2011 and 2012, respectively. Tintin has a tentative release date of December 23, 2011.

Source: ComingSoon.net

Director/Producer/Writer Peter Jackson

The Hollywood Reporter has given out its own Producers of the Year Award to Peter Jackson, his lifelong partner Fran Walsh, and Carolynne Cunningham, for their work on District 9, which released earlier this year.

The Hollywood Reporter’s website includes an extended article detailing the story behind Jackson and his team’s efforts to first produce a film adaptation of the Halo videogame, and how that project turned into the independently financed District 9. The main reason why the Halo project was canned was because Jackson insisted that it be directed by first-time feature film director Neill Blomkamp, which then financiers Universal and 20th Century Fox were not comfortable with. The article then goes on to talk about Jackson’s involvements as director and producer for The Lovely Bones, set to release January 15.

In Other News…

Today NBC Universal inched closer towards being sold by General Electric (which holds an 80% stake in the company) to Comcast. The two came to an agreement on NBC Universal’s worth, which they estimate to be at around $30 billion. Under the deal that is being proposed, Comcast would buy a 51% share of GE’s stake.

However, Vivendi (who owns the remaining 20%) has the option of vetoing the deal if it wishes too. Also, the FCC withholds the right to undercut the deal under anti-trust grounds if it so chooses, so nothing appears set in stone.

Source: Variety