Peter Jackson Announces He's Working on Mortal Engines Adaptation
Peter Jackson’s next project will be an adaptation of Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines, co-written and directed by his long-time collaborator Christian Rivers.
The series of children's novels takes place in a steampunk post-apocalyptic future where cities are mobile and perambulate the planet devouring each other for fuel: a system amusingly called Municipal Darwinism. The St Paul's Cathedral-topped London is the strongest of these Traction Cities, in a world where "old tech" is extremely sought after.
Jackson adapted the script with his Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens alongside Rivers, who has been a part of Jackson’s core team since he worked as a storyboard artist on 1992’s Dead Alive. He then worked his way up through the visual effects to splinter unit directing on the Hobbit movies. He then struck out on his own to shoot second unit for this year’s Pete's Dragon.
However, this new movie – the first of what all involved are hoping will be a franchise – represents his biggest challenge yet.
Speaking about Christian’s new challenge, Jackson said:
"Christian is one of my closest collaborators. The combination of emotion and jaw-dropping visuals in Mortal Engines makes this the perfect movie for his move into feature directing. What Christian intends to do with Philip Reeve’s terrific story is going to result in an original and spectacular movie. I wish I could see it tomorrow!"
Christian himself said:
"Mortal Engines is one of those stories that was made for the big screen. A fantastical, futuristic world that has to be seen to be believed. At its heart though, it’s a beautiful love story and a richly complex character driven adventure. To be the director who gets to bring Philip Reeve’s incredible universe to life is a dream come true."
