The Cannes Film Festival featured a Lord of the Rings reunion as Elijah Wood presented director Sir Peter Jackson with the prestigious Palme d’Or prize at the spectacle’s opening ceremony on Tuesday (12.05.26).
Lord of the Rings director Sir Peter Jackson reunited with Elijah Wood at the Cannes Film Festival, as the actor presented Jackson with the prestigious Palme d’Or at the spectacle’s opening ceremony.
Wood is best known for portraying Frodo Baggins in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film franchise, and before presenting him with the accolade on Tuesday (12.05.26), he thanked the New Zealand filmmaker for all he has done for his career.
He said: “Peter grew up … in a country that back then barely had a film industry at all.
“But in true Pete fashion, that was not about to hold him back… When I was just 18 years old, The Lord of the Rings was not just the beginning of Frodo’s journey, but the beginning of my own. So Pete, I truly have. no words to thank you for that.”
Jackson received the prize in recognition of a filmmaking career that spans blockbuster fantasy epics, early cult horror films and award-winning documentaries.
The director and former photo engraver admitted he had Cannes to thank for his 1987 movie Bad Taste selling “really well” at the film festival’s marketplace, which kick-started his career.
He explained: “If the film hadn’t sold well at the marketplace here, I would have gone back to New Zealand to my photo engraver job. Fortunately, it sold really well. It started my career.”
Jackson also told how Cannes Film Festival helped to “change the perception” of the Lord of the Rings film franchise, following a “huge gamble” to shoot all three movies at once.
Speaking about the doomed AOL-Time Warner merger, he added: “We had shot Lord of the Rings over three years, and we shot all three films at the same time.
“And the press was sort of weird, it was a strange time because Warners was being sold – what goes around, comes around – and so all the press was sort of talking about this great folly. What happens if the first film fails? What are they going to do about films two and three because they’re already made? It was a huge gamble, but all the media was talking about that the gamble was going to fail.
“Bob Shaye rolled the dice and so we had to quickly finish 20 minutes of the film. We brought that 20 minutes here in 2001 in May, and we did some press in that castle up on the hill and had a party there, and Bob’s great gamble really changed the perception of the film.
“And for me obviously, it was a life-changing thing. So by the time the film came out there was an anticipation that there wouldn’t have been if not for Cannes.”
Peter Jackson reunites with Elijah Wood to receive Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival
