The New Year's Honours list should be hitting at any moment, but just like New Zealand welcomes the next year in earlier than most of us, so their gong announcements are also advanced - and Peter Jackson is getting a knighthood.
He blagged the award for "services to film", not to mention the massive boost to the country's tourism that Lord Of The Rings has provided in the years since the trilogy's release. Oh, and the huge filmmaking apparatus he's built there.
Thanks to the island nation's status as a member of the Commonwealth, his honour will be fully recognised by the Queen. No idea when or even if he'll be stopping by the palace to pick up his honour - will he have time between producing The Hobbit and working on the thousand other projects he has developing?
Oh, and talking of film folk up for awards, Patrick Stewart has also received the knighthood treatment. The search starts now for a nickname along the lines of Ian McKellen's Serena...