Peter Jackson Is Working on Three Screenplays: ‘I'm Certainly Not Retired'
He did, however, direct the Beatles' docuseries 'Get Back' and the 3D WWI doc 'They Shall Not Grow Old,' which colorized and restored wartime footage. He also wrote and produced 'Mortal Engines' in 2018, and he was listed as an executive producer on the anime 'The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim' in 2024. But since he completed his last ode to J. R. R. Tolkien, he has not led a film set. Jackson, though, insists that he is not out of the game.
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'No, no. I'm certainly not retired,' Jackson told ScreenRant in an interview. 'We are currently working on three different screenplays. I'm at the moment writing three different scripts.'
The 'District 9' director teased that more will be coming from both his 'Lord of the Rings' universe and Beatles retrospectives.
'We are producing and have been writing 'The Hunt for Gollum,' which Andy Serkis is going to direct next year,' he said. 'I've enjoyed working on documentaries, whether they show I've grown old or not, and obviously the 'Get Back: The Beatles' project. I've enjoyed doing various things with The Beatles, which is great, and that'll probably carry on.'
What he might actually direct, he did not say. But what Jackson is most excited about, he revealed, involves pulling a real-life 'Jurassic Park' with a large prehistoric bird.
'But to me, de-extincting the Moa would be just as exciting, if not more exciting, than any film I could possibly make. I've made a lot of movies, but to see the Giant Moa brought back would be a level of excitement that I think would supersede anything at this point in time,' he explained.
Jackson is speaking of the biotech company Colossal Biosciences, of which he is a major investor. The company, according to its website, is 'the world's first and only de-extinction company,' and goes on to write that 'Colossal is closer to restoring the past, preserving the present and safeguarding the future than anyone before. To truly illustrate our success, we must not only redefine de-extinction, but establish standards for the science behind it, as well.'
Last year, Colossal was able to use fossil DNA to bring two dire wolves back from extinction after 10,000 years. No, really: here's the Time cover story.
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