Nana
After a decade-long hiatus from feature narrative filmmaking, during which he pivoted toward groundbreaking documentary projects and the advancement of digital restoration technology, legendary director Peter Jackson has officially confirmed his return to the director’s chair. Speaking at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker provided a roadmap for his upcoming projects, confirming that the long-awaited sequel to the 2011 hit The Adventures of Tintin is now in active development.
Simultaneously, Jackson is helping steward the expansion of the Lord of the Rings franchise through The Hunt for Gollum, a project he is producing while entrusting the director’s chair to longtime collaborator and performance-capture pioneer Andy Serkis.
The Return to Hergé: An "Active, Real Thing"
For fans of Steven Spielberg’s 2011 motion-capture success The Adventures of Tintin, the news that a sequel is finally moving forward is a watershed moment. The project has spent years in the doldrums of development hell, hindered by scheduling conflicts and the sheer complexity of the animation technology required.
"It is an active, real thing," Jackson told IndieWire during the festival. Currently stationed in a hotel room in Cannes, Jackson revealed that he is balancing the festival’s high-pressure environment with the quiet, grueling work of screenwriting. "I’m in the hotel room down the road writing the script and sending pages to New Zealand," he noted. "I haven’t written anything in the last two days because I’ve been busy, but tomorrow I’ll get back to the draft and do some more pages."
Jackson is co-writing the screenplay with his longtime creative partner, Fran Walsh. Once a draft is completed, it will be sent to Steven Spielberg for review. While Jackson expressed a playful confidence that the script would be well-received, he remains open to the collaborative process. "He will read it, and he might say that he doesn’t like it, and maybe we should do different books. I don’t think he will. I think he’ll have notes for sure, but we’ll go backwards and forwards until we have a script that we like."
Regarding the plot, Jackson remained tight-lipped but provided a crucial structural hint: "All I’ll say now is that it begins—it’s not the way that it carries on—but it begins exactly where the last film ends."
Bridging the Gap: The Hunt for Gollum
While the Tintin sequel marks Jackson’s return to the director’s chair—his first feature since 2015’s The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies—his involvement with The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is defined by a more hands-off, mentorship-driven approach.
Jackson confirmed that he and Walsh are pulling from the extensive appendices J.R.R. Tolkien included at the end of The Return of the King. These 50 to 60 pages of notes provide the fertile ground for the film, offering glimpses into Gollum’s origins, his psychological deterioration, and his desperate, treacherous journey toward the Shire.
Comparing Gollum to The Joker
In a surprising creative reveal, Jackson likened the tonal approach of the new film to Todd Phillips’ Joker. "We were thinking about the original Joker film, the one with Joaquin Phoenix," Jackson explained. "The way that explored the Joker’s psychology while it was telling a story. We’ve got the story that’s in the appendices, and we’ll tell that story, but we’ll tell it from an internal Gollum perspective."
Jackson was quick to clarify that while he is providing the foundation, the internal life of the character belongs to Andy Serkis. "You’re taking written things by Tolkien and filming them from a certain POV, and that means you have to get inside his head. I’ve got no particular desire to get inside Gollum’s head," he laughed. "Andy Serkis can do that himself."
The "Godparent" Approach to Production
Jackson’s decision to step back from directing The Hunt for Gollum has been met with both curiosity and respect. For a filmmaker who defined the visual language of Middle-earth, the choice to cede control is rooted in a deep professional trust.
"I thought the film would be more interesting if Andy did it," Jackson said. "I honestly, truly believe that if it’s a film about Gollum’s addiction and internal struggles, Andy would make a much more interesting film than me. If I thought I’d do a better film, I’d do it. But I thought, there’s a guy that’s going to make a really interesting film here and it’s not me."
Jackson characterizes his role as a "godparent" to the project—available for consultation when requested, but careful not to stifle the director’s vision. "I don’t do anything unless I get asked. I don’t ever go into work and say, ‘Andy, you should do this, you should do that.’ I want to let him make his film."
The Changing Landscape of Hollywood
During his time at Cannes, Jackson also took a broader look at the state of the film industry, expressing concern over the consolidation of power. He reflected on the era in which he secured the funding for his original Lord of the Rings trilogy, noting that the market has shifted from a diverse ecosystem of multiple studios and independent backers to a streamlined, risk-averse model.
"If you go back 20 years, there were maybe seven studios financing films, plus a lot of wealthy independents," he noted. "Now you’re going to end up with maybe three studios. Even if they each make 20 films a year, that’s still only 60 films. Technically, there are 60 filmmakers who would have been able to make a film 20 years ago who now aren’t going to get that opportunity. How can that be a good thing?"
The Loss of Physical Media and Lore
Jackson also lamented the decline of physical media, specifically the loss of the "extended features" that became a staple of his Lord of the Rings DVDs. These behind-the-scenes documentaries were not merely promotional materials; they served as an unofficial film school for an entire generation of aspiring directors.
"Since they only sell small numbers, no studio wants to put extended features on them or to extend the cuts," Jackson observed. "We did hours and hours of behind-the-scenes material… People would watch that stuff over and over again because it inspired them to make films. That’s all gone now, and I think it’s a real shame."
Despite this, Jackson remains a student of history. He compared the current anxieties surrounding the film industry to the historical resistance against technological shifts like the introduction of synchronized sound or the transition from black-and-white to color film. "People were writing very intelligent articles about why color was an abomination and how it ruined the film industry. So, it just happens all the time."
Looking Toward 2027 and Beyond
The current timeline places The Hunt for Gollum on a trajectory for a 2027 release. As a producer, Jackson is currently balancing his high-level executive duties with the granular, creative labor of writing the Tintin screenplay.
His journey from the massive, singular vision of his early trilogies to this current role as a mentor and collaborator signifies a shift in his career priorities. By stepping back to allow artists like Andy Serkis to take the helm, while simultaneously returning to the director’s chair for Tintin, Jackson is proving that his influence on cinema is not merely defined by his past works, but by his ability to evolve alongside the medium itself.
For the audiences waiting to return to the world of Hergé’s reporter or Tolkien’s tragic creature, the message from Cannes is clear: Peter Jackson is back, and he is as committed to the craft of storytelling as he has ever been.
Evan Lee Salim
Dwi Wanna
