An evening with Peter Jackson

Basically it was Peter Jackson and David from the ABC film program having "a private conversation with 2000 friends [listening]".

• He's lot thinner. If you were making the film of how Lord of the Rings was made, you would have to find someone else to play Peter Jackson.
• Apparently he visualises the whole film in his head. The job of everyone else is to put that up on the screen.
• Here told a long story about how the film was approved. It was very much The Hero's Journey, with Harvey Weinstock as Threshold Guardian, and the New Zealand Film Commission as the Unexpected Helper (and Jackson, of course, as the Tribal Hero).
• When asked about his strengths as a director, he said (in effect) that it was to draw on all the talents of a creative team.
• He showed his bloopers roll. It deconstructed the process of fantasy-making. Aragorn and Theoden are starting down, not from Helms Deep to 10,000 orcs, but from a wooden platform to some blue cloth with some white stars on it. Gimli kept talking about Iroquois rather than Uruk-Hai. And Gandalf decided to appear in Return of the Queen instead.
• He talked a lot about "organic and creative".
• "Budget is good. Schedule is good. You need the discipline." King Kong will premiere on 14 December. Not a hint of doubt.