Microsoft Game Studios and Peter Jackson have partnered to create Wingnut Interactive, yet another production company Jackson will own in his hometown of Wellington, New Zealand.

When the press release came through at work I was shocked. We knew that he was working on a Halo movie –which has since turned out to be a game instead- but this is something else entirely. Peter Jackson is quoted as saying "From a movie-maker's point of view, it is clear to me that the Xbox 360 platform is the stage where storytellers can work their craft in the same way they do today with movies and books but taking it further with interactivity." And it is true. Minus the deliberate corporate reference, I could not agree more. I majored in Interactive Multimedia. Gaming –and especially online gaming- is a new way of storytelling and possibly represents the first real innovation in the craft since the invention of fire.

No, my shock came from the fact that these words came out of Peter Jackson’s mouth. Irrespective of my drinking buddies’ boredom I would bray on endlessly about the unrivalled feat of production management that saw this man shoot three of the biggest films of all time concurrently. If you include sub-contractors, at the peak of production Peter Jackson was the biggest employer in all of New Zealand. He should certainly be congratulated for this but the fact remains that when it comes to production management he could have done much better. Witness the fact that at the same time he was cutting Return of The King Richard Rodriguez was shooting Once Upon A Time In Mexico on HD and he only required one of his principal actors (Johnny Depp) on location for eight days. I am sure that shooting on HD would have saved months of time and millions of dollars for both Jackson and New Line. To my knowledge he has never once mentioned that it was an option so I assumed this was because he wanted a film ‘aesthetic’ –which would have been a bit rich considering almost every shot in the three movies was digitally graded.

No, I had got Mr Jackson very wrong. Here is someone who is willing to create entirely new pieces of software just so that he has more realistic crowd scenes (even if they are delivered on film). I should have known better. Just as the rest of the screen entertainment industry should have. It marks an important shift in the entertainment economy that someone twice voted ‘most powerful man in Hollywood’ is abandoning ship.

In partnership with Microsoft, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will operate Wingnut Interactive out of Wellington. I noted with some interest his reaction to a question posed by an interviewer from a local current affairs program after the announcement. He was asked about the potential this decision had to create new jobs for the Wellington region. Clearly she was expecting something on the same scale as The Lord of The Rings. His eyes widened slightly. There was a brief pause. He avoided specifics. Think about it, lady! He has partnered with Microsoft. What would a seaside town of bureaucrats hope to offer that he could not already get?

And what of Microsoft? It is an excellent arrangement for them and further proof that this industry is going to be critical to the future of the company. Their key competitors are not even in the market yet and they sign up perhaps the most celebrated filmmaker of the last decade. They really must be ecstatic. Here is a geekboy who made entertainment history through sheer force of will. A man who –unaided- made war films in his early teens and zombie films in his late. A world class storyteller and a truly excellent prize if you are looking to be the market leader in console gaming.

Power to him, of course. There are only so many academy awards you can win. It is just that this is bigger than anything he has done before. The stakes are high. This one company has annual profits that equal more than half his home country’s entire GDP.

I suppose it goes to show you how much of a fantasy book The Lord of The Rings really is. The unassuming man from the tiny country who conquered the globe has been willingly swallowed up. In the real world Mordor always wins. 

G Preston White is a New Zealand-based freelance writer. Visit his blog at http://newzealandmedia.blogspot.com or he can be contacted via his website http://www.prestonwhite.co.nz