Quote:
Originally Posted by Geoff D
Oh, I still think he's a law unto himself (the Lucas parallels go deeper than just an obession with CG and digital, he's basically created his own Kiwi version of Lucasfilm) BUT he's not afraid of letting people know he wings it a lot of the time and that he's not working from some grand plan, he hasn't bought into the cult of Sir Peter Jackson™ just yet (though it helps that he's working from someone else's source with LOTR/Hobbit, admittedly).
Heck, filmmaking in general stems from such creative chaos more often than people will ever realise, but it's only on Jackson's brilliant extra features that we really get to peek behind the curtain on a contemporary production (honourable mention to Charlie de Lauzirika's discs, though even he can only do so much with a modern show where he has to toe the corporate line).
Jackson's also adamant that the original versions of his works be made available no matter how many other extended cuts exist, and for that alone he's worth 10 Lucases.
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Oh yeah, I know it doesn't just end at "prequel trilogies, digital and CGI". But I mean, to me it often feels like people get so hung up on the similarities between the two that they forget about all the differences that exist as well.
You make a good point that Jackson having the groundwork laid out for him re: the story he's telling in these movies certainly makes a big difference. In that respect you have to give Lucas some credit; he had to build his universe from the ground up so he had some much bigger stumbling blocks along the way. Chances are Jackson would mess up more than he did in spots if he was writing it all from scratch, by himself. That's also the thing though, Jackson had the good sense to leave most of the writing process to others while Lucas insisted on (mostly) doing it himself.
Indeed, filmmaking in general can be a very chaotic and spontaneous process. Jackson's productions are far from unique in that regard, it's just that he's more honest than many others are, and once again, huge props to him for that. It's much more interesting than the usual "it was great, everyone was great" fluff that's typical of special features for contemporary films.
That's yet another difference between the two, Jackson has some actual appreciation for the historical value and legacy of his films, and the contributions of his cast and crew (like mentioning he has too much respect for Ian Holm to be completely comfortable with the idea of replacing him with Martin Freeman in the prologue for Fellowship, unlike Lucas who was all too happy to erase people's work and pretend it never existed).