Production of the Lovely Bones seems to have grinded to a halt as Peter Jackson sent everyone home until he can sort out what heaven looks like. No, he isn’t hallucinating. He is in a heated dispute with an art director about how Heaven should look in the movie.
Peter Jackson and one of his art directors are in a big tiff on the set of The Lovely Bones. Why? Because they can’t agree on the film adaptation’s notion of Heaven. Filming has temporarily stopped until The Pearly Gates, a major aspect/set in the film, meets Jackson’s satisfaction.
So a while back we discussed Peter Jackson yanking the fans around as I quote John who said “he’s pretty much proved himself to be a lying weasel who uses and manipulates his fan base as mindless pawns to carry out his private battles in public.”
At the time of the Halo discussions that have become legendary around these parts, we lost a lot of respect for Peter Jackson at least in how he deals with his fans. Now this sounds dangerously like he is having other conflicts with other people as Lovely Bones seems to be ripe with social contraversy.
Ryan Gosling was dropped from the project because he put on some pounds for another role, and now he is bickering with his Art Director?
But before we shoot off on that assumption, lets keep in mind that we dont know that this is Jackson’s fault. Perhaps he is just passionate about getting it right and the Art Director has the imagery all wrong. As the Director of this movie, it is Jackson’s JOB to challenge the Art Director if he is straying from Jackson’s vision.
Ultimately this riff will either get settled with the replacement of an art director or one or the other is going to have to budge on their vision. considering it is Jackson’s rep that will be chewed to shreds if the vision of the heaven set is “wrong”, so he has to get it right.
I have to at least respect that he is standing his ground, and I hope that he is fighting a good cause, because if he is wrong the reviewers wont let him live it down. But he believes in this strongly enough to stop production and send everyone home until it gets cleared up and I have to respect him for that.
Turns out this story was falls or misrepresented. Comingsoon.net has an update about it.
Rodney I understand what you are saying but all that stuff you point about jacksons supposed behavior was all just an assumption by john.
There is absolutely no proof whatsoever that jackson lied when he released his statement about why he won’t be involved in the hobbit. None whatsoever. John decided he was lying and that was that.
one of the big “lies” john hated about that press release was jacksons claim that he didn’t know new line were under such a tight deadline. At the time new line claimed they only had until the end of that year to make a deal or they lost the film…Jackson said he did not know that.
And you know why I believe jackson now….
because I find it a little weird that it was more than a year later that they finally got the production together and the still have the rights. Looks like the dead line wasn’t as tight as new line made out. Hhmm..maybe they lied? I know that would be unlike a studio to do as they are alway completely above board.
Anyway….as you say its old news now..it just bugs me when you guys have no proof that he was lying other than johns odd take on the news.
Which was exactly my point.
He did something to lose respect from some of his most devoted fans (I am still one of them) but he hasn’t appeared to since.
That settles it then.
Still feels a bit over blown to call the man a lying weasel and to loose “all respect” for him.
Gut, the point wasnt that he delayed the movie. That was annoying enough because as you admitted the fans would want it sooner than later.
The reason people were pissed at him is that he lied and said NewLine wouldnt make a deal with him and that he wasnt responsible for the delays. He also claimed he didn’t know that NewLine was on a deadline to lose the rights.
He knew all along and it wasn’t that he was delaying, it was that he was feeding the fanbase lines to look innocent while he deliberately delayed the Hobbit. He lied for money and tagged along his most loyal fans in the process.
So people were pissed that he tried to delay the start of production so that the company that he was in legal battles with would lose their rights to make the film?
He would then most likely get the rights himself so he could work with people that didn’t try to steal his money. Am I getting the gist of it?
Don’t see how people would lose all respect for the man because of that. Did people really feel that Jackson somehow owed them a Hobbit film right away?
Not to open up a can of worms (which is why I didnt get into the details during the post.) but back when the Halo debacle was unfolding and the overlapping drama with New Line and the future of the Hobbit, Jackson was double talking and feeding the fans lines (falsehoods) that diverted any blame of the situation away from him.
https://www.themovieblog.com/2006/11/peter-jackson-lies-to-fans-to-get-better-deal
It is history and I would hope that Jackson had learned to choose his words more carefully. I only mentioned it in the article to illustrate that I actually respect Jackson for making this current stand against one of his Art Directors and that past opinions against him for past actions were not affecting my call on this.
Thats all.
I have always felt that the movie blogs dislike of jackson all of a sudden was incredibly odd. I still do not for the life of me understand what he did to be called a lying weasel.
But all of that aside gosling was not dropped because he put on weight for another role. they came to the decision together.
But as for this lovely bones story…the art director is there to serve the director vision so it can in no way shape or form be “jacksons” fault.
The directors vision is final especially a director like jackson. Hes hardly a studio hired chump doing hack pay jobs.
but again the movie blogs dislike of jackson has always puzzled me
How did Jackson behave towards his fans during the Halo discussions?
@John
“Ryan Gosling was dropped from the project because he put on some pounds for another role, and now he is bickering with his Art Director?”
Woah what. No he put the pounds on to look older, but in the end they both mututally agreed he couldn’t pull off the older look. There is no bad blood there as far as I’m aware.
This makes me have a bad feeling about the Hobbitt. Hopefully, Jackson won’t be a dick and just let Del Toro direct want he wants.
I didn’t know Peter & Howard parted ways that sucks.
Let’s not forget the dispute over the score for King Kong. He and Howard Shore parted ways, leaving the score to be written by James Newton Howard.