Narnia Maker Closes in on Jackson

Peter Jackson’s reign as New Zealand’s richest and most successful film-maker at the box office is under threat from producer-director Andrew Adamson. Adamson’s latest film, Shrek the Third, opened in the United States last week at No. 1 – toppling the previous opening weekend record for Shrek 2 in 2004 and setting a new opening weekend record for any animated film. Adamson – who has co-written all three Shrek movies, directed the first two and is an executive producer on the third – will pass the $US3 billion mark for his films at the box office, narrowing the gap between him and Jackson, whose The Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong made $US3.4b. But the gap between Adamson and Jackson is likely to quickly close. Two more instalments in his Narnia series will be released in the next two years – Prince Caspian, which he is co-writing and directing, and, as producer, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Read the whole story here.