Peter Jackson Not Retired from Movies, Focused on Bringing a Giant Bird Back from Extinction

“Lords of the Rings” Oscar winner Peter Jackson has not directed a narrative feature film in more than a decade.

The director presented his last feature, “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” in 2014. Since then, he has pivoted to documentaries with 2018’s “They Shall Not Grow Old” and 2021’s “The Beatles: Get Back.”

Jackson recently opened up to ScreenRant about his decade-plus hiatus from feature filmmaking.

“No, no. I’m certainly not retired,” he said. “We are currently working on three different screenplays. I’m at the moment writing three different scripts.”

“We are producing and have been writing ‘The Hunt for Gollum,’ which Andy Serkis is going to direct next year,” he added, referencing the next “Lord of the Rings” movie. “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.”

Recently, Jackson has been prioritizing Colossal, the biosciences company he is a major investor in.

Together with the company’s CEO Ben Lamm and archaeologist Kyle Davis, Jackson has been trying to bring the Giant Moa back from extinction.

“To me, de-extincting the Moa would be just as exciting, if not more exciting, than any film I could possibly make,” Jackson told ScreenRant. “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.”

“Colossal Biosciences has announced an effort to genetically engineer living birds to resemble the extinct South Island giant moa – which once stood 12 feet (3.6 meters) tall – with $15 million in funding from Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh.

The collaboration also includes the New Zealand-based Ngāi Tahu Research Centre.”

“The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum” will open in theaters on December 17, 2027.

Jackson and his partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are producing the new movie.