Peter Jackson and Sean Ono Lennon join forces for new animated short film ‘War Is Over’
Sean Ono Lennon has teamed up with director Peter Jackson for the new short film War Is Over, inspired by John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s song ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’.
The project has been in the works since 2021, when Lennon originally set out to make a video for the beloved festive favourite. However, following a meeting with former Pixar animator Dave Mullins, the musician decided to head down the animated route. After a lengthy two-year process, the film is finally finished and looking for a distributor.
Mullins has written and directed War Is Over, with Jackson, who recently helmed the video for The Beatles’ ‘Now and Then’, acting as an executive producer for the project alongside Lennon. The pair also helped finance the film alongside independent backers.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Lennon said the track “felt like it deserved some kind of piece to help get it out there for another generation.” However, he wanted to avoid making a “goofy” video, adding: “What are we going to show, a family sitting around a fire? It needed an actual narrative.”
Explaining his involvement, Jackson said: “Sean and I are friends and he was initially wanting some advice about his script. I first heard from Sean a few weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, and it was clearly an important project for him. I remember telling him that an animated short film would take 12 to 14 months to make, and there was a very good chance the war in Ukraine will have resolved by the time it was finished.”
He solemnly concluded: “Here we are, and not only is the misery in Ukraine continuing with no end in sight, there’s now the war in Gaza.”
Lennon added: “For me, it’s very sad that my parents’ message of peace and love is still relevant to this day. It seems like such an old story.”
“Some people are very sensitive about this message of peace today,” Lennon claimed. “They feel like it’s a denial of peoples’ pain. And I am not criticizing anyone. I’m saying I really believe in resolving problems peacefully as a concept, even though it sounds very naive. It’s something I was raised to believe and I still believe it.”
As of yet, there is no release date for the project, but it’s currently being shown to studios.
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