Finding Originality

Director Peter Jackson talks to Los Angeles Times reporter Geoff Boucher about producing sci-fi film District 9, hobbits and the proliferation of remakes, sequels and adaptations in Hollywood. District 9, which is set in South Africa and based on Neill Blomkamp’s 2005 short film Alive in Joburg, is a bit of a rarity in that it’s not an adaptation of a comic book or a toy, it’s not a remake or a sequel and it’s not based on an old television show. “It was never a film that people knew about until it suddenly started getting the trailers and the posters started going around and then it was like, ‘Oh my God this is a weird, little strange film’,” Jackson said. “I can understand [new filmmakers celebrating material they love as opposed to creating something entirely new] because when you’re a young kid or a young adult and you’re wanting to make a film — and this is pretty much my story too — you tend to interpret. To be an original is probably the hardest quality to find if you’re a young filmmaker.”