With Middle-earth now far behind him, it looks like Peter Jackson will finally book a (figurative, of course) trip to Gallifrey. Until recently, the director had been reticent about any plans to direct an episode of Doctor Who, despite some insistent courting by showrunner Steven Moffat. It has been almost 18 months since Moffat discussed the possibility of Jackson directing an episode of the long-running BBC series, though he didn’t do a great job of selling Jackson on the gig, noting that the Tolkien adaptor would be forced to work with a considerably smaller budget and shorter timeframe than he’s used to by now.
Nonetheless, given the overlap in their geeky sensibilities, Moffat seemed confident that Jackson would take on the task. His optimism has now been rewarded, with Jackson taking to Facebook to acknowledge that he’s dodged Moffat’s emails while also insinuating that he’s finally agreed to Moffat’s terms (a 12-day shoot in Cardiff). In the video, Jackson waxes his Oscars while his daughter goes through his correspondence. They joke about Moffat’s verbosity and inconvenient emailing times, but are interrupted by the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi), who has an urgent message from Steven Moffat, which is presumably a contract. Then a wayward Dalek chases The Doctor/Capaldi out of the room just as Jackson appears to accept the offer. Because it’s Sunday (the day on which Doctor Who airs in New Zealand), Jackson and his daughter rush off to celebrate the arrangement by watching an all-new episode…of The Walking Dead. Cheeky.