"Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson knighted

Peter Jackson (Associated Press photo)

Filmmaker Peter Jackson has been knighted in his native New Zealand, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Jackson, whose “Lord of the Rings” trilogy earned 17 Oscars, has been made a knight in New Zealand’s New Year Honors’ list. On the annual list honoring the country’s worthy citizens for, Sir Peter Jackson is lauded for ”services to film.”

New Zealand knights and dames are sanctioned by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who is New Zealand’s head of state because the country used to be a British colony.

For the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Jackson used New Zealand’s natural scenery as the landscape for J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy land Middle Earth. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the films broke box office records worldwide, won Jackson international accolades and caused a spike in tourism to New Zealand.

Jackson is working on the two-movie “LOTR” prequel “The Hobbit” with celebrated Mexican director Guillermo del Toro. Jackson finished the screenplay for the first “Hobbit” film in summer. He told fans at Comic-Con in August that the films would be based not only on Tolkien’s book “The Hobbit” but also on other stories about the characters drawn from the “LOTR” trilogy.

Jackson’s latest film, the big-screen adaptation of “The Lovely Bones,” which he wrote, directed and produced, will open in Oklahoma City next month.

-BAM