Published May 13, 2026, 10:19 AM EDT

Out of Cannes, the director says he's finally grabbing the baton from Steven Spielberg

19 years in the making, Lord of the Rings’ Peter Jackson says he's ready to make his big sequel

Image: Paramount Pictures

Peter Jackson, the visionary filmmaker behind the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, King Kong , Heavenly Creatures , the stunning World War I doc They Shall Not Grow Old , Disney Plus’ Beatles doc Get Back , and arguably his best movie, the splatter zombie comedy Dead Alive , has not made a movie in over 12 years. He’s stepped in as a producer for friends, backing everything from Mortal Engines to Andy Serkis’ upcoming LOTR midquel The Hunt for Gollum , but he hasn’t stepped behind the camera to direct a narrative feature in over a decade.…