PETER JACKSON
WHY HE GETS A MENTION IN THE END CREDITS OF THE KING’S MAN (2021)
IT’S TRUE: THE Peter Jackson who is thanked in the end credits of Matthew Vaughn’s The King’s Man, alongside the likes of Shardeloes Equestrian Centre and The Wilfred Owen Literary Estate, is not the former manager of Huddersfield Town FC, but the Peter Jackson. The director of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, King Kong, Get Back, and more. Who just happens to be an expert on World War I, the very era in which The King’s Man takes place.
“I don’t really know many people in the film industry, oddly,” says Vaughn. “It was just one of those things where the stars aligned. I was invited to the premiere of his documentary on World War I [They Shall Not Grow Old], and after I reached out to him saying I loved it.” Jackson then invited Vaughn round to his English home to check out his collection of World War I memorabilia. “He showed me so many things, and gave me a few things,” adds Vaughn. “He gave me a little booklet which showed soldiers how to build a trench with a spade. And he actually gave me confidence. We were talking about how World War I movies are heavy and serious all the time, and he was like, ‘There was a different side to it.’ We were talking about the beauty of it. In our trench sequence I wanted a beautiful sun, because nature wasn’t saying, ‘This is World War I, this is horrible.’ So I’m very grateful.” Among Jackson’s collection of World War I artefacts are a number of planes from the era, and he’s not been one to hoard them for himself — he loaned one to fellow Kiwi Neil Finn, to be used as the sonic backdrop for a song on his Dizzy Heights album (called, appropriately enough, ‘Divebomber’) — but the plane flown (and trashed) by Ralph Fiennes in The King’s Man was built by Vaughn’s team. “Peter told me everything I needed to know about that plane,” says Vaughn. “He showed me videos of them, which were pretty unbelievable. He was like, ‘If you come down to New Zealand, you must have a go!’” One ticket to Wellington for a Mr M. Vaughn, please.