Peter Jackson: “Sitges is my favorite film festival in the world”

SitgesSaturday evening, just before Peter Jackson (Pukerua Bay, New Zealand, 1961) received the Grand Honorary Award at the Sitges Festival, the usual montage of scenes from the honoree's filmography was screened which, in this case, culminated in the iconic image of King Kong walking towards the town of Sitges that is never missing from any festival session. “For me this is truly incredible –said an emotional Jackson–, because two important things coincide: that the King Kong from 1933 is my favorite movie of all time and that Sitges is my favorite festival in the world”.

The director of The Lord of the Rings discovered Sitges in 1992 when he/she came to present Clinically dead (Braindead), that wonderful orgy of gore which starred a Sevillian actress, Diana Peñalver. “34 years ago I presented Braindead with Diana, and today I return to present Braindead with Diana –the director pointed out–. I have a strange feeling of déjà-vu, and I hope to return with Diana in 34 years to introduce her once again”.

On that first visit to Sitges, Jackson met some of his personal heroes: directors like Stuart Gordon and Tobe Hooper and the master of special effects Rick Baker, with whom he has met again this Sunday in a brief but enlightening talk after the screening of the King Kong from 1976. A few hours later, the director starred in a meeting with the public with many questions from filmmakers and film students asking the master for advice. He, however, opted for pragmatism: “Take a mobile phone and make a movie –he recommended–. And I'm not saying that to sound smart. A young aspiring filmmaker should simply take their mobile phone and make cinema. It is all you need”.

In a tone less festive than Saturday evening, Jackson has reeled off some of his great influences (he saw the King Kong original with 8 years on television and the series Thunderbirds) and the protective role that Robert Zemeckis exercised as producer of Take these ghosts from me (The frighteners in the original version): “Robert was the first person in Hollywood I worked with. He was very supportive and we talked a lot about how the industry works. He had been helped by Steven Spielberg at the beginning of his career, and he wanted to do the same for me”.

A 288-day nightmare

When recalling the consecutive filming of the three The Lord of the Rings films, Jackson does so without epic flair. On the contrary, it is as if he were reliving a not-so-distant nightmare. “Our filming schedule was 288 days, which seems like a whole lifetime, but once you start shooting you can no longer escape, so every day you get up and go to make the film –he explains–. The curious thing is that the body and the mind hold up until the last week arrives and you can’t take it anymore, but that happens on shoots of six weeks, six months or 288 days”.

After the experience, Jackson promised himself that he would never again get involved in a shoot like that. However, he ended up leading the filming of The Hobbit trilogy, which at first he was only supposed to produce. “I still remember the day the filming schedule for The Hobbit arrived and it was... 288 days. Again. I couldn't believe it. But we did it, again”. It is no wonder that after these experiences Jackson asserts that he does not enjoy directing. “It’s a very, very hard job –he says–. I don’t enjoy it. I love working on the scripts and the editing, but while you are filming a movie there are too many things that can go wrong. You can go over budget, not meet the filming schedule, have the studio angry with you... It is a very stressful experience”.

Regarding current projects, and just as he announced at the last Cannes Festival, Jackson is preparing the second installment of the animated Tintin directed by Steven Spielberg in 2011. “We just finished the script a few days ago and it will be the next film I direct,” he assured. He also updated the status of his new foray (this time as a producer) into the Tolkien universe, The Hunt for Gollum, directed by Andy Serkis, which will finish filming in two weeks. Beyond that, everything is yet to be decided. At this point, the Sitges audience holds its breath; the possibility of returning to the gore and guts horror of his beginnings is glimpsed. “Of course, I would love to. But I don’t have a seven-year plan. One project leads to another. However, if I have a good idea, why not?”