Jackson's films have an unabashed penchant for the grotesque mixed with a child-like playfulness with the possibilities of cinema. Their tone is humorous, in a manner both campy and celebratory, as well as being genuinely bleak. Unstable psychological states and unhappy family situations mix with extreme yet sometimes cartoonish violence and a satirical, densely referential glance at society and cinema itself. His second feature, MEET THE FEEBLES (1990), was another venture into comic horror, but this time people, appropriately for Jackson's emerging style, were replaced with puppets, as a massacre of performers throws suspicion onto one Hilda the Hippo. He stayed with the same genre but once again used live actors for his international breakthrough film, DEAD ALIVE (1993, originally titled BRAINDEAD in New Zealand). It proved so hilarious that its amazing gross-out quotient went down like a smooth custard, yet Jackson's emerging preoccupations with repressive parent-child dynamics and parricide gave the dessert just enough body.

Some saw Jackson's next film, HEAVENLY CREATURES (1994), retelling the story of New Zealand's most famous murder case in decades, as both considerably more serious and a real departure for him. It was certainly the former but hardly the latter, as his restless visual stylistics and surprising sympathy for those who commit violence lent depth to a story of two teenage girls whose intense friendship leads to matricide. He and co-scenarist Fran Walsh received an Oscar^® nomination for their original screenplay. Jackson followed up with JACK BROWN, GENIUS (1995), a comedy about a modern inventor and a medieval monk, and THE FRIGHTENERS (1996), a Michael J. Fox starrer about a psychic investigator. Both films had their moments but seemed like mere breathers coming before the most ambitious undertaking of Jackson's career, a move for which his intriguing combination of the whimsical and the fantastic on the one hand and the potently grim and downbeat on the other seemed well-suited -- filming, in what was planned as three motion pictures, J.R.R. Tolkien's landmark mythological novel The Lord of the Rings (lensed 1999-2000).

Once completed, the ambitious project was scheduled to roll out in installments over three years: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001), THE TWO TOWERS (2002) and THE RETURN OF THE KING (2003). The first installment, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, earned praise from critics and audiences for its epic action and skillful take on very complicated material. The film received a near-record 13 Academy Award^® nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. The superior special effects in the film also made a lasting impact and elevated the Jackson-backed F/X house WETA Workshop in New Zealand into the upper eschelons of movie magic practitioners. Jackson also re-edited the film, inserting over 30 minutes of unreleased material, for a special DVD version, resulting in an even more entertaining release. The second instalment, THE TWO TOWERS, was released in 2002 to much fanfare, with many critics and moviegoers deeming it an even superior film to the first outing. Jackson's 7-year effort was capped with 2003's THE RETURN OF THE KING. The "Ring" trilogy grossed approximately $2 billion world-wide.

After completing the "Ring" trilogy, Jackson then returned to the project he'd wanted to make immediately after THE FRIGHTENERS, KING KONG. He'd acquiesced to Universal's request that he delay making KONG until after the 1998 release of GODZILLA and MIGHTY JOE YOUNG. After the tremendous success of the Trilogy, Jackson got the green-light for his remake of KONG. Filled with references to (and sometimes actual artifacts from) the original 1933 production, Jackson lovingly recreated the classic Universal release, using advances in digital effects technology to produce around 2,400 special visual effect shots - a new record for a feature film. (Jackson had used approximately 2,800 vfx shots for the whole "Ring" trilogy.) Once again, Andy Serkis ("Gollum" in the LOTR) provided the real-life skeleton on which Kong was created. This time, Serkis had 132 sensors attached to his face so that his every facial expression could be captured and shown on the great ape's face. Starring Jack Black, Naomi Watts and Adrien Brody, budgeted at around $207 million, and running a whopping 187 minutes, KONG grossed around $520 million worldwide. What's more, despite its length and a tendency to run CGI scenes too long and starting and stopping the action to expand the plot, the film won a new generation of fans for the most famous ape in movie history.

Jackson has several projects announced for production in 2009: He'll direct THE LOVELY BONES (based on Alice Sebold's novel about a girl who whatches the effects of her murder from heaven, with Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Saoirse Ronan, Susan Sarandon and Stanley Tucci); Jackson and Steven Spielberg will co-direct TINTIN, the animated adventures of popular Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin and his faithful dog Snowy. Jackson is scheduled to produce DISTRICT 9 and HALO for 2009, and executive produce THE HOBBIT for 2010, and THE HOBBIT 2 for 2011.