Hey folks, Harry here with coverage from a really cool event that took place in Sydney tonight... but I'm posting it pre-noon on Saturday... That's how good we are - coverage before it happens! What? International Date Line? Oh. Nevermind. Here ya go...
G'day Hazza, Mazza, Quint...za...and the rest of the gang at "Aint It Cool?".
Long time reader, first time blah blah...
I had the great privilage of attending "An Evening with Peter Jackson" at the wonderfully "kitsch" (as my sister describes it) State Theatre in Sydney tonight, Saturday 12th March.
When Peter came on stage, I realised just how much weight he really has lost. We've been seeing this on the kongisking.net production diaries for months, but seeing him in person had such a greater impact. He's looking terrific! It really is good news, because, well, he'll be around for a lot longer to keep making movies. He was wearing a "hideous ensemble" from "Lowes circa 1988" (as my sister describes it)...and, hey...thats why we love him.
Peter was relaxed and quite unfazed by the 2000 strong audience, and seemed fairly awake despite nearing the end of filming KING KONG. He relayed stories of the making of BAD TASTE. Things he memtioned that I haven't heard elsewhere before were:
* The film was shot entirely on Sundays, as he needed to work six days a week to keep the funds up.
* When he couldn't afford to get the film developed, he kept it in his family's fridge while he saved up.
* He didn't know it was going to have to be a feature film until 18 months into filming, when he hired an editor to put the footage together and discovered it was an hour long already.
Thats all I can remember from that section.
He talked briefly about BRAINDEAD (or "Dead Alive" in the U.S.), and mentioned that Stephen Sinclair had originally written it for Theatre! Could have been interesting...he also assured the audience that his mother was a lovely woman, and that the matricide of BRAINDEAD and HEAVENLY CREATURES was purely coincidental...
There was a quick section about THE FRIGHTENERS, but it wasn't really new information.
Peter then spent 40 minutes or so describing the process of how he managed to get THE LORD OF THE RINGS greenlit. Although I'm pretty sure we've heard most of the information before, Peter put a lot of detail and humour into the story that I was reminded me of just how absurd it the success of the story is. He also a brief but near-perfect impersonation of Harvey Weinstein, and talked of the the hilariously bad treatment Miramax gave he and Fran of the two-hour, one-film version of LOTR that they wanted him to make.
However, the absolute highlight of the evening was the never-before-seen "behind the scenes footage" which Peter brought along. Shown in three sections, the footage turned out to be a blooper reel, which Peter told us had never been seen by an audience before. And, boy, were we one lucky audience. You know that feeling you get when you've laughed so much you're face is kind of contorting and twitching, and your stomach is burning and you start to think "I wonder if its possible to die from laughter?"...? Thats how funny this stuff was. Some highlights....
* Merry lying in bed with a three-foot-long morning glory, soon to be joined under the sheets by a fascinated Pippin
* Ian McKellen as Gandalf: If we do not join forces against Sauron's army, the outtcome will be so..incredibly...shit!
* Viggo mortensen bumbling lines and saying "fuck" a lot.
* Liv Tyler swearing in slow-motion
* Orlando Bloom as Leglas being very ungraceful with his bow and arrow, messing up take after take.
* The following dialogue: Aragorn: The tracks lead...into Fangorn forest. Gimli: Fangorn! Legolas: What the fuck are they doing in there?
* Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey pulling his robes aside ro reveal his bare legs and underwear, then performing many provocative poses.
* McKellen again at the end of ROTK when he is putting the crown on Aragorn. The camera pans up and we see that Gandalf has gone Hollywood and been to a stylist...I don't know exactly how to describe hair, but lets just say it was very blonde, very tall and very full of pink flowers.
The evening concluded with a quick not about KING KONG. Basically just that he's very pleased with the production so far, and that he is looking forward to the challenge of bringing the king of all monsters to life through CGI. Duh! Who wouldn't be!!!!?
It is easy in the wake of THE LORD OF THE RINGS to forget just what a treasure Peter Jackson is to the film geek community. Here we have a man who understands how to put all kinds of monsters, spiders, goblins and trolls together with the ultimate emotional character journeys...and make it all work. Here we have a filmmaker unburdened with the pretension of making "films", but impassioned with a desire to make "movies". He understands that to make a a film entertaining, you must draw the audience into the world of the story and characters...*then* you can make that world as fantastical as you like. And best of all, he's just one of us...he's just a total geek.
Well, thats all.
If you use this, call me The Ringwraith
