Jackson keen on Doctor Who


Sir Peter Jackson says he wants payment in gold for directing Doctor Who in New Zealand – a gold Dalek that is.

The director of The Hobbit trilogy, King Kong and The Lord of the Rings told Entertainment Weekly he had met the show’s executive producer and head writer Steven Moffat over directing Doctor Who.

Jackson told Moffat he was serious about the offer he made to direct the show in New Zealand through the Waikato Times and named his fee of a gold Dalek.

“They don’t even have to pay me, but I have got my eye on one of those nice new gold-colored Daleks. They must have a spare one (hint, hint),” Jackson said in the interview.

Various Daleks sporting different coloured armour have appeared in the show, which turns 50 in November.

Jackson is a long-time fan of the show, attracted to a job on Worzel Gummidge Down Under filmed near Matamata in the 1970s because it starred Jon Pertwee, the third actor to play the Doctor since the show started in November, 1963.

Matt Smith, the 11th actor in the role, suggested Jackson direct an episode last September during an interview with The Times.

The Times took the idea to Jackson who sent Doctor Who fans into a frenzy by replying.

“I’m a huge Doctor Who fan, and I think Matt’s fantastic.

“Just name a time and place, and I’ll be there.”

Then Wellington-based screenwriter Neil Cross, who had already written two episodes of the upcoming season which begins in Britain on March 30, said he was keen to script a New Zealand-based story and knocked ideas around with the Moffat, also co-creator of Sherlock, at the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.

Jackson already owns two Daleks used on the show as well as seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy’s costume. McCoy was cast in The Hobbit as Radagast The Brown.

Moffat wouldn’t comment on Jackson’s price: “You’d never get any information like that out of me,” he joked. “We’re theoretically on board for anything, provided we’ve got a great story.”

Ad Feedback

Share