Adapted from the 2001 Philip Reeve novel of the same name, Mortal Engines is a 2018 steampunk movie that was directed by Christian Rivers and written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson. Hugo Weaving, Jihae, Ronan Raftery, Leila George, Patrick Malahide, and Stephen Lang are among the cast members. Hera Hilmar also appears. The movie, a co-production between the United States and New Zealand, is set in a post-apocalyptic future where entire towns have been motorized and mounted on wheels, practicing municipal Darwinism; the movie universe is distinct from the one in the books.
The book’s rights were bought by Jackson in 2009, but the movie didn’t move forward until it was formally announced in 2016. Jackson chose Rivers to make his feature-length directorial debut with the project and also recruited several members of his production teams from the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movie trilogies. Rivers won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his work on Jackson’s King Kong. In New Zealand, filming took place from April to July 2017.
