Jackson’s shocking 1995 quote that caused an uproar
Peter Jackson has spent a career crafting cinematic magic, from the epic scope of The Lord of the Rings and King Kong to meticulously restoring the sounds of The Beatles. Yet, perhaps his most profound achievement wasn’t creating fictional worlds, but expertly convincing audiences that a fabricated story was entirely genuine.
This knack for illusion dates back to the early days of Jackson’s filmmaking. Before he became the master of epic fantasy, he was a low-budget New Zealand filmmaker known for outrageous gore flicks like Bad Taste and Brain Dead.
As Jackson moved toward greater Hollywood success—just before tackling the ghostly comedy The Frighteners—he found an intriguing collaborator in the mid-1990s. Working with his friend Costa Botes, Jackson conceived an ambitious, utterly ridiculous plan: creating a fake documentary.
Their goal was to tell the supposed life story of a brilliant, yet elusive, director named Colin McKenzie. The idea, Botes noted, was simply an amusing notion, though he admitted he didn’t foresee any serious likelihood of the project ever being realized.
Jackson stepped into the role of on-camera presenter for the resulting project, which eventually came to be known as Forgotten Silver. The premise was simple: McKenzie had discovered a treasure trove of his best work, hidden on old film rolls in a garden shed.
To make the story richer and more unbelievable, Jackson and Botes injected theatrical flair. They claimed McKenzie had pioneered cinematic tricks, inventing talking in films, color, and the first tracking shot. They even fabricated ‘archive’ footage, claiming to feature the very first sound film and the first close-up in cinema history.
The production relied heavily on star power to bolster the illusion. They roped in celebrity friends like Sam Neill and Harvey Weinstein to act as talking heads, lending a veneer of credibility to the completely made-up narrative. The actor playing McKenzie, by the way, ended up landing in a very bizarre role as Gollum’s cousin in one of Jackson’s earlier films.
The response when Forgotten Silver aired was staggering. Audiences fell completely for the elaborate hoax. One source recounted a call from a highly regarded New Zealand educator who declared it the best program he had ever seen. This overwhelming belief quickly spiraled into trouble for Jackson and Botes.
When the reality of the elaborate deception finally dawned on the public, the backlash was immediate and intense. Jackson and Botes faced hate mail and death threats, and the film was eventually pulled from circulation for many years.
Reflecting on the experience, Botes offered a blunt assessment: “We truly weren’t trying to fuck people off. It never crossed our minds that anyone would take it so seriously. It really was just a mountain of bullshit!”
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