Costa Botes

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Costa Botes is a writer, director, and cinematographer. He is notable in New Zealand where Forgotten Silver, a documentary he co-wrote and co-directed with Peter Jackson about a fictional pioneer of the film industry, promoted considerable discussion and was proclaimed by Guinness World Records as the greatest film hoax in history.

In 1988 his short film, Stalin's Sickle, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, in France.

His feature film, "Saving Grace" (1998), based on the play by Duncan Sarkies, was selected for competition at the Valladolid and Asia Pacific film festivals.

Botes has worked as a director for hire on various TV shows, including episodes of "Ray Bradbury Theatre", and The Tribe.

Botes was also involved with the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, first writing a detailed précis of the Lord of the Rings books to help his friend Jackson (whom he met in 1986) pitch the idea of movies to a film studio, then filming three behind the scenes documentaries about the making of the films. These documentaries were held over for a time, but eventually released with the films August 29, 2006 in what New Line Cinema called "Limited Editions". Contractual arrangements with the LOTR actors meant the documentaries could not be released independently of the LOTR films.

Botes continues to make short films and documentaries, and is developing another feature film project.

One of the films Costa is working on (May 2008) is a documentary about the life of David Klein. David is the man who invented the Jelly Belly jelly beans.