New Zealand director Jackson, who brought us the myriad delights of Braindead, Meet the Feebles and Bad Taste, would seem an unlikely candidate to be handed a major Hollywood production, especially one he then dragged back to his native New Zealand under his own terms.
The catalyst that has made The Frighteners a Hollywood reality was producer and Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis. He became involved after Jackson and his co-writer, Fran Walsh, pitched him a two-page outline.
Zemeckis loved the concept and described the subsequent screen play as "wildly scary and funny".
"The Frighteners doesn't fall into a particular genre," Zemeckis says. "It's a mixture of mystery, horror, comedy and suspense. The movie explores the folklore and mythology about psychics, ghosts and the afterlife, and is quite unlike anything ever seen before."
Jackson and Walsh were given the opportunity to pitch their project to Zemeckis after the duo received an Academy Award nomination for their Heavenly Creatures' screenplay. The same film helped lure Michael J. Fox. "After I saw Heavenly Creatures, I told Peter, 'Yes, yes, I'll do whatever you want,'" recalls Fox.
"Bob (Zemeckis) was very supportive of the project and has been there every step of the way," says Jackson. "He was attuned to the kind of film I envisioned: a supernatural thriller/ black comedy. We wanted to make sure we had the right amount of balance between the shocks and laughs and the result was a roller-coaster ride of a movie which audiences can just jump on and enjoy.
Michael (Fox) has a really interesting edge to him in this role which I find fascinating to watch.
I think audiences are going to be quite surprised."
A large part of the credit for making The Frighteners possible also lies with special effects supervisor Wes Takahashi, a long-term Zemeckis colla- borator. Christopher Pickard
Prod co: Wingnut Films
Prod: Jamie Selkirk & Peter Jackson
Dir: Peter Jackson
Scr: Fran Walsh & Peter Jackson
Ph: Alun Bollinger & John Blick
Art dir: Dan Hennah
Prod des: Grant Major
Special effects: Wes Takahashi
Cos: Barbara Darragh
Mus: Danny Elfman
Ed: Jamie Selkirk
Cast: Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin
Running time: 106 mins
Int sales: Universal
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