Oscar‑Winning Movie Director Is Betting $15M on a Bird That Went Extinct 600 Years Ago

Any Lord of the Rings fan can tell you Peter Jackson’s built some pretty epic worlds on-screen, but his latest project is something else entirely. The 63-year-old Oscar-winning filmmaker has officially joined forces with Colossal Biosciences to help bring a long-extinct bird back from the dead.

On Tuesday, July 8, the biotech company announced it’s partnering with Jackson and New Zealand’s Ngāi Tahu Research Centre to resurrect the moa — a massive, flightless bird that went extinct around 600 years ago. Jackson is backing the project with a reported $15 million in funding, per AP News.

Among the nine documented moa species, the South Island Giant Moa topped the charts, reportedly weighing 400 pounds and measuring nearly 12 feet from toe to beak. Scientists believe it was the tallest bird to ever walk the Earth.

“When you grow up in New Zealand, you grow up knowing about the moa,” Jackson told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s just something that’s in our DNA.”

Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh invested $10 million into Colossal last year, but only on one condition: that the company add the moa to its list of species slated for de-extinction. “We made a condition of our investment that all of our dollars go into the moa project,” Jackson said. “So we were able to not just invest in Colossal, but also bring our bones to the table, as it were.”

And they meant that literally.

The couple — who’ve been together since 1987 and share two children — have spent years collecting hundreds of moa bones, now being used for DNA sampling. “We’ve collected about 400 moa bones,” Jackson revealed to the outlet.

Shortly after the moa news dropped, it didn’t take long for the internet to react.

“Absolutely love what you all are doing. Incredible,” one person wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“The moa would be awesome to see again, but I would love for the Steller’s Sea Cow to return,” another said.

“Damn we really are just bringing back animals now this shit is awesome,” chimed in a third.

“Dude, that’s a big a** freaky emu,” someone else pointed out.

“Colossal Biosciences is leading the way with groundbreaking science and conservation, making the future look more like... the past. Bravo!” another added.

While the sight of a 12-foot moa strutting through a preserve is likely still years away, Colossal Biosciences has already made headlines for pushing the limits of de-extinction. Earlier this year, the company introduced its first real dire wolves — living pups created by editing the DNA of gray wolves to express traits of their long-extinct ancestors.

“We are an evolutionary force at this point,” said Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s chief science officer, in an interview with TIME. “We are deciding what the future of these species will be.”