Euro-AICN Special Report: Grozilla talks with Peter Jackson in Paris

This just in from Paris and our man on the scene Grozilla...

Grozilla here...

Peter Jackson has started his European TTT promotion marathon in Paris this afternoon. What follows is what he and some others said to me at the Paris press party...

Those films (Lord of the Rings) are of course three chapters of the same story. But did you work on different shaping for each of them to make each one special ?

PJ... Trilogies always have a particular structure : the first establishes the characters, the situation of the journey. I think it's the job of the second chapter to basically add more danger to the story, make heroes journey much more difficult as the forces of darkness are closing in. So by the time the second chapter come to an end, you really don't see how they're gonna achieve their mission. That, obviously establishes things for the third chapter which is hopefully some kind of triumphant conclusion. I think a trilogy has to have that natural structure, so I found The two towers has by nature to be more intense and darker, because it has to fulfill that role.

Can you give us an idea of how big a part of your life this is. What does it is really mean for you, to you ?

PJ... As a project, it's become probably one of the most signifiant events in my life. I'm fully aware of that. By the time I finish next year the work on The return of the king, that will be seven years I spent on it. As a filmaker, seven years is a large portion of your working life. Anyway, for anybody adapting The lord of the rings, it would demande that degree of time to do it with justice. I'm happy to do it even if I know it's the hardest thing that I'll ever do in my life. I'm certainly looking for to do smaller films after that. I absolutely have no ambitions to attempt to do anyhting bigger : this is is and that's fine. You know, it has taught me a lot. I think anyone involved in this will probably thinks and feels they went through the hardest and the most honest experience of their filmaking lives.

Apart from the piece of work it is to make that film, LOTR is also such a piece of literature, that people are so attached to it. When you go on this kind of project, you must face with the fans. Did you ask yourself how faithful to remain to this work, what you could add or change to it ?

PJ... I'm two things in this process of filmaking. One, I'm a filmaker and obviously has to deal with a screenplay. But equally importantly I'm a fan of the book. The process of adaptation of a book is about deleting stuff for simplification. Lord of the rings needed obviously more simplification than any other books. I approached it with my responsabilty of filmaker but when I was doing this process of adaptation as a fan, I knew what I wanted to see, the characters that I really want to see on the screen. Believe me or not, I'm looking for to see the images and characters as much as anybody else, that even was one of the biggest motivations for me to do those films. So it's your instinct and your love of the book that kind of make you this kind of decisions.

As Gollum and Frodo are kind of linked by the ring in a very complex relationship, Aragorn or Rohan's king are quite torn between choices here. Is this feeling the heart of this chapter ?

PJ... I think you're right in the sense that in that particular story most of characters found themsleves in a place where they have to make a decision, a place where to decide what they gonna do, what the responsablity is. The main point is Frodo. The part of Gollum is really important in Frodo's story, because he was the previous owner of the ring for the five hundred years before it came to the Hobbits. Frodo always has this reminder in the form of Gollum, of what will happen to him if he keeps the ring for too long, if he fail to destroy it. And of of course the Smeagol side of Gollum is the former type of Hobbit he used to be. Frodo's kindness, compassion and mercy he shows to him allows one of the ultimate tragedy of this story : that Smeagol is not strong enough to prevail.

Humor kind of lighthly appears in this chapter..

PJ...As we discussed earlier, this film is a bit more intense than the first one. I think it's important that humor balances the film as the intensity grows.

In the past years, some work of literature were known as unadaptable on screen. Now with the help of new technologies, we are more and more able to show them on screen.

Richard Taylor (SFX supervisor)... Technology obviously plays a huge part, but it's one thing to have technology it's another to get the vision and how to drive this technology. I do believe the written word is always bigger in an human mind than on screen. The film image has often being controlled by budgetry and technology but those days will be kind of past with characters like Gollum. Ultimately it's the heartware not the hardware that put him on the screen, that effectly you got a character and a soul. I suggest we as viewers very quickly stop look at it as a technological advance and just appreciate as a character alongside actors

Elijah, we heard a lot how this is a top on filmaking, that there won't be something bigger. How does a rising star like you are self consider the following of a career ? We've seen in the past some actors starring in this kind of trilogy, that couldn't make it up after. Are you scared about that ?

Elijah Wood... No, I'm not. I have done some work before this, some people know me from this previous work, I'm lucky enough for that. I know anyone who worked on LOTR trilogy will never work again on something bigger. But that's not intentional for an actor. It's really about the individual character you play, some roles are just more challenging than others.

There has been rumors about returning to some smaller scale Zombie film after this trilogy. Is it true ?

P.J... The answer is yes. I'm a big fan of zombie movies but nobody's making it anymore, that's irritating. I'm sure one day I will do one again.