Can We Expect Peter Jackson To Direct A Future Episode Of ‘Doctor Who’?

Last week, we learned that Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, was interested in directing an episode of Doctor Who. The idea came up when Matt Smith expressed his interest in filming an episode in New Zealand with Jackson as the director:

“Let’s get Peter Jackson to direct one and go and make it in New Zealand. I would love to, I will campaign endlessly to come over and film there. There’s clearly a great film industry out there. It’s something I would be very interested in, it’s just whether we can persuade the producers to fly us all over.”

Upon hearing Smith’s interest, Jackson responded:

“I’m a huge Doctor Who fan, and I think Matt’s fantastic. Just name the time and place and I’ll be there!”

Since the initial talk of Jackson coming on board to direct an episode, the producers have been contemplating about whether or not the idea is feasible. Series 7 writer, Neil Cross, has spoken about potentially scripting a story that could “only be shot in New Zealand.” It’s a safe assumption that Jackson would probably be in the Director’s Chair.

Caroline Skinner, Executive Producer of Doctor Who, is just as keen on the idea:

“It is beyond wonderful that Peter is a fan of the show and it’s beyond flattering that he’d even think about it. I’m absolutely sure that we couldn’t afford him but, you know, we can always negotiate. His enthusiasm is just fantastic of course.”…”I’m with Matt [Smith]. Of course at some point we’d love to bring Doctor Who down under…it won’t be possible until at least a year after the 50th anniversary. We are already two-thirds of the way through the shoots of series 7 and although we filmed a couple of episodes abroad (Spain and the USA). I can confirm for the rest of series 7 we will be shooting entirely in Cardiff Bay.”…“It won’t be for a while but rest assured that we are thinking about it. The landscapes and just the world of New Zealand is of course phenomenal and many movies are set in your beautiful country. It is also an extremely long way from Cardiff Bay so the logistics and the sheer scale of moving Doctor Who to New Zealand is something that would take an awful lot of planning and time. It’s an enormous thing to move an entire production down there for an episode or two.”

Hopefully we see some Peter Jackson magic in the next series of Doctor Who. I’m thinking it will be a match made in heaven.