Bad Taste (1987)
Made over 4 years (between 1983 to 1987).
Peter Jackson’s first film, it was science-fiction comedy; he originally intended it to be a 10 minute short film called “Roast of the Day”. The film received critical acclaim and the rights were sold to twelve countries. This allowed him to start a professional career as a film director. During post-production on Bad Taste, Jackson also met Fran Walsh who would one day become his wife.

Heavenly Creatures (1994)
The Film was a major change for Jackson in terms of both style and tone. The film depicts the story of the Parker-Hulme murder, the story of New Zealand's most famous murder case in decades, in which two teenage girls in 1950s Christchurch murdered the mother of one of the girls. It received considerable critical acclaim, including an Academy Award (Oscar) nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

The Frighteners (1996)
The acclaim received by Heavenly Creatures led to Jackson's directing the Robert Zemeckis production, The Frighteners (1996), starring Michael J. Fox as a psychic investigator.

Jackson's films seemed like mere appetizers coming before the most ambitious undertaking of his career.

The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

Principal photography went on from October 11, 1999 to December 22, 2000 with Jackson monitoring as many as seven units across New Zealand locations and sets. With the benefit of post-production on each film for their December releases, the films were huge successes and sent Jackson's popularity soaring.

The Fellowship of the Ring earned praise from critics and audiences for its epic action and skillful take on very complicated material and received a near-record 13 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Two Towers received critical acclaim from both critics and moviegoers, who deemed it an even superior film to The Fellowship of the Ring

The Return of the King proved to be the pinnacle for Jackson, winning universal praise as an immensely satisfying wrap-up to the epic tale and a landmark in cinematic innovation. Jackson himself would be rewarded at last with some major directorial plaudits, including a first Best Director Academy Award, a Golden Globe as Best Director, Motion Picture, and a Directors Guild Award. The third film itself garnered 11 nominations overall, the first ever to achieve that many without any acting nominations, and collected an Oscar for each category for which it was nominated, tying the records held by "Ben Hur" and "Titanic."

King Kong (2005)

This was a film he had dreamed of remaking since he became obsessed with it as a 9 year old. The film was released on December 2005, and grossed around US$550 million worldwide.

• For Directing King Kong by Universal Studios, he was paid a fee of $20 million (Rs.80 crores) upfront as salary. The highest salary ever paid for a Director.
• The Lord of the Rings was originally to be made with Miramax as a two-film production but was finally made with New Line as a Trilogy.
• Following The Return of the King he lost 50lb or 22.5kg to the point of being unrecognizable by many of his fans.
• His mockumentary, Forgotten Silver – a film claiming to tell the story of (fictional) New Zealand film pioneer Colin McKenzie who had supposedly invented colour film and 'talkies', and attempted to make an epic film of Salome before being killed in the Spanish Civil War and forgotten by the world, was so realistic that many in New Zealand believed that it was real when screened on New Zealand television. Many viewers were outraged at being fooled when its spoof nature was only revealed the following day.
• There is a strong possibility for him to direct The Hobbit based on J. R. R. Tolkien's novel of the same name.
• He will make three games with Microsoft Game Studios.
• He has announced that he will produce and direct a Tintin movie along with Steven Spielberg to be released in 2009.
• Jackson usually makes cameo appearances in his own films and has appeared in all but one film, Meet the Feebles (1989), which stars Muppet style Puppets.
• He is a perfectionist with his film projects and demands numerous takes of every scene. His famous line being, “One more for luck”.
• He insists upon authenticity in miniatures even on the sides that never appear in a film.
• Jackson is renowned for his insistence on "coverage" - shooting a scene from as many angles as possible. And spends days shooting a single scene thereby creating his final vision in the editing process, when he has as many options to choose from as possible.
• Peter Jackson has remained in his native country to make films.

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