1. Peter Jackson's Various Cameos - All The Movies
For some directors, the notion of a "cameo appearance" is something of a trademark: Martin Scorsese, Alfred Hitchcock and Quentin Tarantino (amongst many others) have become renowned for their willingness to turn up in the frames of their own pictures - some subtle (like Hitchcock), others of the more jarring variety (hey, Tarantino: that's you!). Peter Jackson is also a fan of the director cameo, and as a result he can be seen across the span of acclaimed trilogy in a number of brief - but often hilarious - roles. In The Fellowship of the Ring, then, Jackson can be seen towards the beginning of the film when the hobbits arrive at the rain-drenched town of Bree. He's the unsavoury-looking character chomping on a carrot as they enter. In The Two Towers, he can be glimpsed during the Battle of Helm's Deep as a man who throws a spear from atop the wall and into the Uruk-hai hordes below. His cameo was cut from Return of the King, unfortunately, but it can be seen in the Extended Edition of the film; Jackson plays a pirate leader whose ship is hi-jacked by the ghosts during the Pelennor Fields sequence. And, of course, the great director continued said tradition of cameos into The Hobbit movies. But we'll save those for another time... Like this article? Got any more easter eggs, in-jokes or references to add to the list? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
