Fran Walsh facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Fran Walsh
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Walsh in 2019
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| Born |
Frances Rosemary Walsh
10 January 1959 Wellington, New Zealand
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| Occupation | Screenwriter, film producer, lyricist |
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Partner(s) | Peter Jackson (1987–present) |
| Children | 2 |
Dame Frances Rosemary Walsh (born on January 10, 1959) is a talented New Zealand screenwriter and film producer. She helps create the stories and manage the making of movies.
Fran Walsh is the partner of famous filmmaker Peter Jackson. She has worked on all of his films since 1989. She started as a co-writer for Meet the Feebles and became a producer for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. She won three Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) for the last film in that trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
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Fran Walsh's Early Life
Fran Walsh was born in Wellington, New Zealand. Her family had Irish roots. She went to Wellington Girls' College and first wanted to be a fashion designer. But soon, she became more interested in music.
She even took breaks to play in a punk band called The Wallsockets. Later, she studied English literature at Victoria University of Wellington and finished her degree in 1981.
Fran Walsh's Film Career
Fran Walsh got her start in screenwriting in 1983. She wrote for a New Zealand TV film called A Woman of Good Character. After that, she wrote scripts for a TV show named Worzel Gummidge Down Under.
Meeting Peter Jackson and Early Films
Walsh met Peter Jackson in the mid-1980s. This was when he was finishing his low-budget movie Bad Taste. In that film, aliens turn humans into fast food!
Fran Walsh has worked with Peter Jackson on the scripts for all his movies since then. She joined the writing team for his next film, a dark comedy called Meet the Feebles (1989). The couple then worked with writer Stephen Sinclair on a horror-comedy movie they had started before Feebles. This was the zombie film Braindead (released as Dead Alive in the United States, 1992).
Exploring New Stories
Walsh and Jackson explored new types of stories with the drama Heavenly Creatures (1994). This film was Fran Walsh's idea. It was based on the friendship of two teenagers. The movie earned Fran and Peter an Oscar nomination for their screenplay.
Fran Walsh became a mother, giving birth to her son Billy in 1995 and her daughter Katie in 1996.
They returned to a more familiar type of movie with the horror-comedy The Frighteners (1996). This was their first film funded by an American studio, Universal Studios. They had talked with Universal about remaking King Kong. But Universal decided against it because two other big monster movies, Godzilla and Mighty Joe Young, were being made.
The Lord of the Rings and Beyond
Wanting to try fantasy movies, Peter Jackson looked to make a film based on the books by J.R.R. Tolkien. In 1998, New Line Cinema gave them the money needed to make a three-part movie series of Tolkien's classic The Lord of the Rings.
Fran Walsh, along with Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens, wrote the screenplays for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003). They won many awards together, including an Oscar for their adapted screenplay for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Fran Walsh was also one of the film's producers. She helped write two songs for Return of the King: "Into the West" and "A Shadow Lies Between Us". "Into the West" earned her another Oscar that night.
Walsh, Jackson, and Boyens continued to work together on the screenplay for the 2005 remake of King Kong. Universal gave this movie the go-ahead after the huge success of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The couple also worked on adapting the novel The Lovely Bones and on the three-film adaptation of The Hobbit.
Fran Walsh prefers to keep her life more private than Peter Jackson or Philippa Boyens. She did not give interviews for the bonus features on The Lord of the Rings movie DVDs. However, she did join the director/writers' commentary where they talked about wanting one of them to stay private for their family. Her voice was even used for the scary screech of the Nazgûl in the films!
Awards and Honours
Fran Walsh has won many important awards for her work in film.
In 2004, she won three Academy Awards (Oscars) for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King:
- Best Picture (as a producer)
- Best Adapted Screenplay (for writing the script)
- Best Original Song (for co-writing "Into the West")
She has received a total of seven Oscar nominations throughout her career.
In 2002, Fran Walsh was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her contributions to film. In 2019, she was promoted to Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, which is a very high honour, also for her services to film.
Filmography
Here is a list of some of the films and TV shows Fran Walsh has worked on, mostly as a screenwriter:
- Worzel Gummidge Down Under (1986–89)
- Meet the Feebles (1989)
- Braindead (1992, screenplay, casting director, acting cameo)
- Heavenly Creatures (1994)
- Jack Brown Genius (1996)
- The Frighteners (1996, screenplay, associate producer, acting cameo)
- 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 (2009, screenplay, producer)
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012, screenplay, producer)
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013, screenplay, producer)
- The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014, screenplay, producer)
- Mortal Engines (2018, screenplay, producer)
- Beatles '64 (2024, special thanks)
See also
In Spanish: Fran Walsh para niños
