Fran Walsh

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frances Walsh (born 1959), MNZM, is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter and film producer and also a musician. She is the long time partner of filmmaker Peter Jackson since 1987, and mother of their two children, Billy Jackson and Katie Jackson. Fran has contributed to all of Jackson's films since they met at the end of Bad Taste.

1 Biography
2 Filmography
3 References
4 External link

[edit] Biography

Walsh was born in Wellington, New Zealand and attended Wellington Girls' High School intent on becoming a fashion designer, but eventually became interested in music instead. Occasionally taking time off to perform in a punk band named The Wallsockets, she attended Victoria University of Wellington majoring in English literature and graduated in 1981. Walsh wrote scripts for television shows such as Shark in the Park and Worzel Gummidge Down Under in the 1980s.

Walsh met Peter Jackson in 1987 while he was doing the post-production on his low-budget flick Bad Taste. Walsh has collaborated with Peter Jackson on the scripts of all his subsequent films, starting with the black comedy Meet the Feebles (1989). The couple then collaborated with writer Stephen Sinclair on the horror-comedy film Braindead (also known as Dead Alive, 1992).

Walsh and Jackson explored new ground with the drama Heavenly Creatures (1994), which earned her an Oscar nomination for the screenplay. She gave birth to Billy in 1995 and Katie in 1996. They returned to a more familiar genre with the horror-comedy The Frighteners (1996). They were in talks with Universal Studios to remake King Kong until 1998's Godzilla and Mighty Joe Young were first announced, and Universal decided against the film. Wanting to try his hand at fantasy, Jackson turned to Miramax to make a film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. In 1998, New Line Cinema provided the necessary financial backing to make the films.

Walsh, with Jackson and Philippa Boyens, is credited for writing the screenplays for The Lord of the Rings movies (2001–2003). They shared many awards, including an Oscar for their adapted screenplay for The Return of the King. She also was one of the film's producers and a composer of two songs for Return of the King, namely "Into the West" and "A Shadow Lies Between Us", earning her two more Oscars that night.

Walsh, Jackson, and Boyens continued their screenplay work together for the 2005 remake of King Kong, which was given the greenlight by Universal after the Rings trilogy's success. The couple recently acquired the rights to the novel The Lovely Bones.

Walsh prefers to remain more private than Jackson or Boyens, as she did not contribute an interview to The Lord of the Rings movie DVDs; however, she does feature on the director/writers' commentary. As well, her largely unaltered vocals were used as the screech of the Nazgûl in the films. She has been described as "modest to a fault" by Forgotten Silver-filmmaker and Jackson-friend Costa Botes.

Fran Walsh, New Zealand screenwriter, should not be confused with Fran Walsh, a writer for New Zealand commentary magazine, The Listener.

[edit] Filmography

This is her selected filmography as a screenwriter, unless noted.

Meet the Feebles (1989)
Braindead (1992, writer, casting director, actress)
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Jack Brown Genius (1994)
The Frighteners (1996, writer and associate producer)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001, screenplay, producer, lyricist for "In Dreams", additional second unit director)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002, screenplay, producer, composer for "Gollum's Song")
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003, screenplay, producer, composer for "Into the West" and "A Shadow Lies Between Us")
King Kong (2005, screenplay, producer)
The Lovely Bones (2007, screenplay, producer) (Announced)
Halo (2008) - Executive Producer (Announced)