Jackson set for a big night at the flicks

By RUSSELL BAILLIE, Entertainment Editor

Peter Jackson is looking forward to his night at the flicks, but not the traffic getting there, although parking shouldn't be a problem.

And while it might be the Wellington world premiere of his final instalment in his Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson isn't watching the film out of duty - he hasn't actually seen the final movie himself.

He's been a bit busy getting it finished and sending it off to American studio New Line, reel by reel to meet deadlines.

"I've seen it in pieces," he said yesterday as he mused on bringing his eight-year, three-movie multimillion-dollar project to an end, "I've seen a finished cut but at that point it was in a pretty crude state".

"About a week ago I thought 'should I really sit down now and watch it? I can't actually change it.'

"There's nothing more hopeless than sitting by yourself in a theatre watching a movie that you can't do anything with."

It will be a first time, too, for Richard Taylor, the double Oscar-winning head of Weta Workshop, who is taking his Mum and Dad and partner Tania Rodger, the workshop's manager.

"I didn't want to to see it until I could see it with them - and the workshop gets the hump if I see it before them as well."

No, not knowing how the finished film plays on the big screen isn't causing Jackson first-night nerves. It's the bit beforehand - the parade, the red carpet and hoopla of the Wellington opening.

"My nerves at the moment are more based on just the sheer pandemonium of tomorrow," said the man who got a standing ovation on Saturday night as he took his seat in the audience at the Michael Fowler Centre for a performance by LOTR composer Howard Shore and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

"I'm really not the sort of guy that revels in being a centre of attention to quite this degree.

So far as having come to the end of the ambitious and wildly successful project, Jackson says he doesn't quite know what he's feeling.

"It's partly relief. Sadness? I don't feel sad about finishing Lord of the Rings, as such. That's three movies and three is fine and I'm glad there's not a fourth one to be quite honest.

"I think a lot of people experience [the same thing] in different ways - if you are building a house or doing work on something that takes a long time. Or a relationship - it's like a relationship that after seven years comes to an end.

"But we've done what we set out to do, like Frodo really."

And as for his next trick, a remake of King Kong, he says apart from a long-held dream to redo the film which inspired him into film-making as a boy, it seemed a practical step after the trilogy. Especially for Weta Workshop and Weta Digital, both of which have been working on the film for six months.

But after that, it's time for Jackson to scale down.

"In a way I feel I've achieved everything I want to achieve with studio, American kind of stuff and there is a lot of great New Zealand stories.

"Fran [Walsh] and I have just been talking for years about all sorts of true stories because Heavenly Creatures was such a fun experience for us, doing all the research and interviews. This country has great stories. We have three or four of them lined up."

Not that he would say so, but Jackson and his The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a great New Zealand story. Tonight marks the beginning of its final chapter.

Herald Feature: Lord of the Rings