The director explained that "every New Zealand schoolchild has a fascination with the moa," a flightless bird similar to an ostrich that went extinct 600 years ago.

In a “Jurassic Park”-esque fashion, “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson and the Texas-based biotech company Colossal Biosciences are partnering to “de-extinct” the centuries-extinct New Zealand bird known as the moa.

Having not been behind the camera on a major Hollywood feature for 11 years, Sir Peter Jackson has insisted he is "certainly not retired" from making movies.