SDCC: Peter Jackson on District 9, Hobbit, Lovely Bones

Published by Jeff Leins on: July 24th, 2009

Peter Jackson attended the San Diego Comic-Con Thursday to help promote District 9, a science fiction film he produced for director Neill Blomkamp.  The two were supposed to collaborate on a big-screen version of the video game Halo, but when it fell through they picked up another special-effects driven story to tell.  A careful, clever viral marketing campaign culminated in the special screening Thursday afternoon where Jackson introduced Blomkamp as an “exciting new filmmaker.”

When Slashfilm asked Blomkamp about possibly returning to Halo, he said “I probably wouldn’t do Halo if it was offered to me.” Instead he’s 99% sure what his next film will be.  Blomkamp told the site, “I’ve got one science fiction idea that I’m absolutely in love with… It’s totally original, it’s my own story… It’s set on another planet, but it’s cool. It’s violent, very violent, and very unique hopefully. We’ll see.”

Reactions from the early screening of District 9 have been positive.  Peter from Slashfilm and Alex from FirstShowing gave it an 8 and an 8.5 respectively in their video review/discussion, as well as other online outlets writing their approval.  Jackson confirmed there was a $30M budget for the film and added, “We live in a world where $30 million is a small amount of money.”  According to their first look, the digital work makes it seem like “two to three times” that.  If you haven’t seen the trailer for the film yet, you should really take a look.  It will blow you away.

At a special press event after the event, Jackson told reporters the writing team on The Hobbit (including director Guillermo del Toro) is about three weeks away from delivering the script to the studio.  Since MGM hasn’t given the greenlight, they haven’t officially cast anyone yet.  He also said they have 13 dwarves to cast.

Speaking of Hobbits, Jackson told Collider the first Blu-ray release of Lord of the Rings will be the theatrical version with the extended cut not out until at least a year later.

On The Lovely Bones, the director said a trailer should premiere August 6 on Apple.com and play with prints of Julie & Julia.  He showed press 4 and a half minutes of “dazzling” footage introducing the characters from the novel by Alice Sebold, leaving a few already considering its award potential.

His next project as director is the rumored Temeraire, a retelling of the Napoleonic Wars with dragons.  He hasn’t decided how he wants to adapt the novel series though.   “The six books make such a compelling series that I think a mini-series might be the way to go,” Jackson said.

Finally he touched on Tintin, the first of which just wrapped shooted with Steven Spielberg.  According to Empire, Jackson will oversee the effects work and re-read the Herge-written comics to decide which one he wants to bring to the screen.