Director/Co-writer/Co-Producer, PETER JACKSON received widespread acclaim
for his 1994 feature Heavenly Creatures, which was awarded a Silver
Lion at the Venice Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination for Best
Screenplay. Written by Jackson and his collaborator Frances Walsh, the film
is based on an infamous New Zealand murder of the 1950's, and the story
of two intelligent and imaginative young girls whose obsessive friendship
leads them to murder one of their mothers.
He previously directed and co-wrote Braindead, released in the U.S.
as Dead Alive, which played at festivals around the world and won
16 international science fiction awards, including the Saturn.
Born in New Zealand on Halloween in 1961, Jackson began at an early age
making movies with his parents' Super 8 camera. At 17 he left school, and
failing to get a job in the New Zealand film industry as he hoped, started
work as a photo-engraving apprentice. After purchasing a 16 mm camera, Jackson
began shooting a science fiction comedy short, which, three years later,
had grown to a 75-minute feature called Bad Taste, funded entirely
from his own wages. The New Zealand Film Commission eventually gave Jackson
money to complete the film, which has become a cult classic. His other films
include Meet The Feebles, an adult puppet feature. Prior to starting
The Frighteners, he co-directed the television documentary Forgotten
Silver, which is currently screening at film festivals around the world,
including the London, Toronto, and Venice festivals this year.
Executive producer ROBERT ZEMECKIS received a Best Director Academy Award,
as well as Golden Globe and DGA awards, for the 1995 oscar-winning Best
Picture Forest Gump. Zemeckis has directed such other hit films as
the multiple oscar-winning Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Romancing The Stone,
and the Back To The Future trilogy starring Michael J. Fox. He co-wrote
with Bob Gale the screenplay for the first Back To The Future film.
Zemeckis made his directorial debut in 1978 with I Wanna Hold Your Hand
from a screenplay he co-wrote with Gale. The two collaborated again on Used
Cars and Trespass, which Zemeckis directed and produced, respectively.
He executive produced The Public Eye starring Joe Pesci, and directed
and produced Death Becomes Her, which received a 1992 Academy Award
for Best Visual Effects.
Co-screenwriter/associate producer FRANCES WALSH co-wrote with Jackson the
acclaimed feature film Heavenly Creatures, a 1995 Oscar nominee for
Best Original Screenplay. The two teamed previously on Meet The Feebles
and Braindead.
Walsh began writing as a young girl, and played in musical groups while
studying English literature at Victoria University in Wellington. Her professional
career began in 1983 writing narration for the telefilm A Woman Of Good
Character, followed by scripts for the series Worzel Gummidge Down
Under and Shark In The Park.
Producer and editor JAMIE SELKIRK has edited all of Peter Jackson's feature
films and associate produced Braindead. Selkirk has edited many of
New Zealand's notable features during his 30-year career and received the
Best Editor award from the New Zealand Film and Television Awards for Heavenly
Creatures.
DANNY ELFMAN (Score) was fronting the popular rock band Oingo Boingo (Dead
Man 's Party) when he was approached by Tim Burton to write music for Pee-wee's
Big Adventure. Thus began his venture into film scoring, which he followed
with scores for such hit films as Batman, Batman Returns, Beetlejuice,
Darkman, Dick Tracy, The Nightmare Before Christmas, (which he associate
produced as well as providing the singing voice of Jack Skellington), Sommersby,
Midnight Run, Dead Presidents, To Die For, Dolores Claiborne, and Mission
Impossible. He is also developing two musicals, The World Of Jimmy
Callicut and Little Demons.
Production designer, GRANT MAJOR has designed film and television productions
for 20 years, his most noted feature credits being Heavenly Creatures
and An Angel At My Table directed by Jane Campion.
Major completed graphic design studies at Auckland Technical Institute and
then worked for three years at Television New Zealand in the design department.
He left to serve as an assistant designer at the BBC London, returning to
New Zealand in 1984, and was associate designer for the New Zealand pavilion
for the World Expo in Seville.
Costume designer BARBARA DARRAGH coordinated wardrobes for the Academy Award-nominated
Jane Campion film The Piano. Her numerous other films include Disney's
The Rescue, Starlight Hotel, Never Say Die, Willow (standby
wardrobe), and Shaker Run. She has worked on several television series,
including the acclaimed Worzel Gummidge Down Under.
Darragh studied fashion and textile design at New Zealand's Wellington Polytechnic
Institute and began her career as a wardrobe assistant with Television New
Zealand, later becoming a designer. She traveled for three months with the
BBC costume department before returning to TVNZ, where she worked for two
more years before becoming an independent film costume designer.
Special effects supervisor WES TAKAHASHI has been the effects animation
supervisor on such films as Ghostbusters II, Who Framed Roger Rabbit,
the Back To The Future trilogy, Indiana Jones And The Temple of
Doom, Meteor Man, Memoirs Of An Invisible Man, Hook, The Rocketeer, Cocoon,
The Witches Of Eastwick, The Abyss and many others.
Takahashi served as computer graphic animator on The Mask, Star Trek
Generations and Indian In The Cupboard. Educated at Hampshire
College in Massachusetts and UCLA, he has worked with many of the industry's
leading animation studios and effects facilities, including Hanna-Barbera,
Colossal, USFX, Boss Films, Pixar, and ILM, and has contributed to a number
of animated feature films, including Lord Of The Rings and American
Pop.
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