Philippa Boyens

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Philippa Boyens

Philippa Boyens 2023.jpg
Boyens in 2023
Born
Philippa Jane Boyens

1962 (age 6162)
Auckland, New Zealand
Alma mater University of Auckland (BA)
Occupations
  • Screenwriter
  • producer
Years active2001–present
Spouse Paul Gittins (–present)
Children3

Philippa Jane Boyens MNZM (born 1962) is a New Zealand screenwriter who co-wrote the screenplay for The Lord of the Rings series, King Kong , The Lovely Bones , and the three-part film series The Hobbit.

Contents

Biography

Born in 1962, Boyens is the daughter of John Fraser Boyens and Jane Moana Menhennet. [1] She was educated at Massey High School, and was later a part-time student at the University of Auckland, graduating with a BA in English and history in 1994. [2] After that Boyens joined a theatre company and her wages were paid by the government in a PEP scheme. [3]

Boyens received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University and Auckland in 2006. [2]

Boyens co-wrote the screenplay for Peter Jackson's films The Lord of the Rings series, King Kong , The Lovely Bones , and the three-part film The Hobbit , [4] all with Jackson and Fran Walsh. [5] [6] [7] [8]

Boyens, Jackson, and Walsh won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at the 76th Academy Awards in 2004. She was co-producer on every one of Jackson's films since King Kong, and on District 9 . Prior to screen-writing, Boyens worked in theatre as a playwright, teacher, producer, and editor. [9]

Boyens was director of the New Zealand Writers Guild for a time. [10]

Work on Lord of the Rings

Boyens first became a Tolkien fan as a child. When she came on board to help the writing team on The Lord of the Rings , she had already read the book seven times. [10]

Filmography

Writer

YearTitleNotes
2001 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring screenplay
2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2005 King Kong
2009 The Lovely Bones
2012 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
2013 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
2014 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
2018 Mortal Engines [11]
TBAThe Merlin Saga [12]

Producer

YearTitleNotes
2005 King Kong Co-producer
2009 District 9
The Lovely Bones
2012 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
2013 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
2014 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
2024 The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Producer; Upcoming film

Soundtrack

YearTitleNotes
2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Writer "The Edge of Night", "The Green Dragon"

Awards

In the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours, Boyens was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to film. [13]

Personal life

Boyens has three children, Phoebe and Calum Gittins, whose father is actor Paul Gittins, and Isaac Miller. All have worked as actors on screen on movies Boyens has been involved in: Phoebe Gittins as a Hobbit in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring , in The Lovely Bones , and in the Prancing Pony in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug ; Calum Gittens appeared as Haleth in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ; [14] and Isaac Miller appeared as a young Hobbit in a flashback of the Old Took's party in the extended edition of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey .[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

Thranduil is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He first appears as a supporting character in The Hobbit, where he is simply known as the Elvenking, the ruler of the Elves who lived in the woodland realm of Mirkwood. The character is properly named in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and appears briefly in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.

<i>The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring</i> 2001 epic fantasy adventure film by Peter Jackson

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is a 2001 epic fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson from a screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Jackson, based on 1954's The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. The film is the first instalment in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It features an ensemble cast including Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean, Ian Holm, and Andy Serkis.

<i>The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers</i> 2002 film by Peter Jackson

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is a 2002 epic high fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson from a screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair, and Jackson, based on 1954's The Two Towers, the second volume of the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. The sequel to 2001's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the film is the second instalment in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It features an ensemble cast including Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Bernard Hill, Christopher Lee, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto, David Wenham, Brad Dourif, Karl Urban, and Andy Serkis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Lesnie</span> Australian cinematographer

Andrew Lesnie ACS ASC was an Australian cinematographer. He was best known as the cinematographer for The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003) and its prequel The Hobbit trilogy (2012–2014), both directed by New Zealand director Peter Jackson. He received the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2002.

The Lord of the Rings is a trilogy of epic fantasy adventure films directed by Peter Jackson, based on the novel The Lord of the Rings by British author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are subtitled The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003). Produced and distributed by New Line Cinema with the co-production of WingNut Films, the films feature an ensemble cast including Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Christopher Lee, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis, and Sean Bean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fran Walsh</span> New Zealand screenwriter and producer

Dame Frances Rosemary Walsh is a New Zealand screenwriter and film producer.

<i>King Kong</i> (2005 film) 2005 film by Peter Jackson

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<i>The Lovely Bones</i> (film) 2009 film by Peter Jackson

The Lovely Bones is a 2009 supernatural drama film directed by Peter Jackson from a screenplay he co-wrote with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. It is based on Alice Sebold's 2002 novel of the same name and stars Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Michael Imperioli, and Saoirse Ronan. The plot follows a girl who is murdered and watches over her family from "the in-between" and is torn between seeking vengeance on her killer and allowing her family to heal.

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The production of The Lord of the Rings film series posed enormous challenges, both logistical and creative. Under Peter Jackson's direction, these obstacles were overcome between 1997 and 2004. Many attempts to produce J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings had failed; the few that had reached the screen were animations. Since the publication of the source novels in the mid-1950s, many filmmakers and producers had considered a film but then set the project aside. The series as filmed by Jackson consists of three epic fantasy adventure films. They were produced by New Line Cinema, assisted by WingNut Films. The cinema versions appeared between 2001 and 2003, and the extended edition for home video in 2004. Development began in August 1997. The films were shot simultaneously. Their production was undertaken entirely in Jackson's native New Zealand. It spanned the 14-month period from October 1999 until December 2000, with pick-up shots filmed over a further 24 months, from 2001 to 2003.

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Carolynne Cunningham is an Australian film producer and assistant director most known for her collaborations with director Peter Jackson, producing such films as King Kong (2005), District 9, The Lovely Bones, and The Hobbit film series (2012–2014). She also served as assistant director on such notable films as Shine (1996), Pitch Black (2000), Peter Pan (2003), King Kong, The Lovely Bones, and all three entries in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

<i>The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug</i> 2013 fantasy film directed by Peter Jackson

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a 2013 epic high fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson from a screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Jackson, and Guillermo del Toro, based on the 1937 novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. The sequel to 2012's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, it is the second instalment in The Hobbit trilogy, acting as a prequel to Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

<i>The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey</i> 2012 film by Peter Jackson

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a 2012 epic high fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson from a screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Jackson, and Guillermo del Toro, based on the 1937 novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. It is the first installment in The Hobbit trilogy, acting as a prequel to Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Commentators have compared Peter Jackson's 2001–2003 The Lord of the Rings film trilogy with the book on which it was based, J. R. R. Tolkien's 1954–1955 The Lord of the Rings, remarking that while both have been extremely successful commercially, the film version does not necessarily capture the intended meaning of the book. They have admired Jackson's ability to film the long and complex work at all; the beauty of the cinematography, sets, and costumes; the quality of the music; and the epic scale of his version of Tolkien's story. They have, however, found the characters and the story greatly weakened by Jackson's emphasis on action and violence at the expense of psychological depth; the loss of Tolkien's emphasis on free will and individual responsibility; and the replacement of Frodo's inner journey by an American monomyth with Aragorn as the hero.

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The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is an upcoming animated fantasy film directed by Kenji Kamiyama from a screenplay by Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, based on a story told in the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. It is produced by Warner Bros. Animation and New Line Cinema with animation production by Sola Entertainment. A prequel set 261 years before the events depicted in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), and around 200 years before the events of The Hobbit, it stars Brian Cox as Helm Hammerhand, a legendary King of Rohan. Also starring is Miranda Otto, reprising her role as Éowyn from the live-action The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

References

  1. Taylor, Alister; Coddington, Deborah (1994). Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand. Auckland: New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa. p. 74. ISBN   0-908578-34-2.
  2. 1 2 "Distinguished Alumni Profiles - Philippa Boyens". University of Auckland. Archived from the original on 20 February 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
  3. Productions, WestMark (21 May 2023), WIFT: Capital Champions - Cine Queens Speak 3 May 2023 , retrieved 12 July 2023
  4. Taylor, Drew (19 December 2014). "Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens on "The Hobbit", a Missing Elf, and What's Next (EXCLUSIVE)". Moviefone. No. 19 December 2014. Moviefone. AOL Inc. Archived from the original on 24 December 2014. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
  5. Sobczak, Marcin J. (5 December 2014). "The Producer's Work: An Interview With Philippa Boyens". The Huffington Post. No. 5 December 2014. huffingtonpost.com. Archived from the original on 25 December 2014. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
  6. Rodger, Kate (2 December 2014). "Full interview: Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens on finishing the Hobbit movies". 3news.co.nz. No. 2 December 2014. 3 News Newzealand. 3 News Newzealand. Archived from the original on 25 December 2014. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
  7. Wilner, Norman. "Q&A: Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, & Lee Pace". Now Magazine. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
  8. Clark, Noelene (18 December 2014). ""The Hobbit": Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens on "Five Armies" ending". Los Angeles Times. No. 18 December 2014. Herocomplex.latimes.com. Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
  9. Ethan Gilsdorf. "Hobbit Week: A Conversation with Hobbit Screenwriter Philippa Boyens". Wired.com. Archived from the original on 14 January 2013. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  10. 1 2 "Phillipa Boyens biodata". In.com. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  11. Lee, Ashley (24 November 2016). "Peter Jackson's "Mortal Engines" Gets December 2018 Release". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 27 November 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  12. Fleming, Mike Jr. (17 November 2015). "Disney Sets "Lord Of The Rings" Co-Writer Philippa Boyens To Write Young Merlin Movie". Deadline. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  13. "Queen's Birthday honours list 2004". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 7 June 2004. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
  14. Philippa Boyens at IMDb