'Mortal Engines' Featurettes: Peter Jackson Praises The World Of Traveling Cities

Peter Jackson and producing partner Philipa Boyens accomplished quite the task by bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved fantasy world of Middle-earth to life in the incredible Lord of the Rings trilogy, and to a lesser extent, The Hobbit trilogy. Now the producing team is trying to kickstart another literary saga in the form of Mortal Engines, based on the book series of the same name by author Philip Reeve.Mortal Engines doesn't seem to have a lot of buzz right now, which is a shame, because the world in which the story takes place looks cool as hell, and it has flares of the films of the Wachowskis. But a new featurette brings Peter Jackson and Philipa Boyens in to help push the project to Lord of the Rings fans, not to mention bringing in the full support and satisfaction of Philip Reeve.

Producer Philipa Boyens talks about how many fantasy projects they were offered after having so much success with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and this is the one that they felt compelled to tackle themselves. Of course, it took quite a long time to get off the ground, but Peter Jackson was dedicated to bringing the story to the screen since it has so much that audiences haven't seen before. After all, when is the last time you saw entire cities barreling across the landscape? Speaking of which...

Another featurette released a little while back focuses on the massive cities that have been made mobile in this post-post-apocalyptic world. Feeling a little bit like a vertical Snowpiercer or an even more massive Titanic, the moving cities have a tier of classes from top to bottom, featuring the most wealthy members of the city at the top and the grunt workers of the engine rooms down at the bottom.

Honestly, it's this aspect of the Mortal Engines saga that interests me the most, and the adventure surrounding the film only makes me more excited about seeing this story unfold on the big screen. Here's hoping the fans of the Mortal Engines series turn out for this movie, because I'd hate for something as compelling as this to flop, especially with how invested Peter Jackson and Philipa Boyens are in telling the whole story. For a better idea of the story, check out this extended trailer.

If you'd like even more of a glimpse behind the scenes of Mortal Engines, the Universal Pictures YouTube channel has been posting weekly production diaries from behind the scenes of the film with each new video focusing on a different department, just like Peter Jackson did with his remake of King Kong over a decade ago. Check out the first episode below and keep watching at the Universal YouTube channel:

Mortal Engines stars Hugo Weaving, Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Jihae, Ronan Raftery, Leila George, Patrick Malahide, and Stephen Lang, and it hits theaters on December 14, 2018.

Hundreds of years after civilization was destroyed by a cataclysmic event, a mysterious young woman, Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar), emerges as the only one who can stop London — now a giant, predator city on wheels — from devouring everything in its path. Feral, and fiercely driven by the memory of her mother, Hester joins forces with Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan), an outcast from London, along with Anna Fang (Jihae), a dangerous outlaw with a bounty on her head.