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Britain
Peter Jackson to film "Dam Busters"
2006-08-31
The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is to remake classic British war film "The Dam Busters", he has told film industry trade paper Screen Daily. Jackson will produce the movie, with King Kong animator Christian Rivers in the director's chair. Jackson said it would be "as authentic as possible and as close to the spirit of the original as possible".
The biplanes attacking "King Kong" were computer generated, can't wait to see what he can do to a Lancaster bomber
The 1954 film told the true story of how Britain developed bouncing bombs to destroy German dams in World War II. Jackson says he first saw the film as a child and "really loved it". "There's that wonderful mentality of the British during the war - that heads-down, persevering, keep-on-plugging-away mentality which is the spirit of Dam Busters," he told Screen Daily.
They need to be reminded of that spirit today
Based on a book by Paul Brickhill, the original film starred Michael Redgrave as Barnes Wallis, who developed the bomb, and Richard Todd as Wing Commander Guy Gibson, who led the RAF bombing mission. Jackson asked his agent to inquire about the possibility of remaking the film at the same time as he was securing the rights to the Lord of the Rings trilogy in the 1990s. "He came back and said that [film company] Icon had the rights and that Mel Gibson was going to direct and possibly act in it," Jackson said. "Obviously that didn't happen."
Mel's going to be busy for awhile
The remake is set to use details of the bombing mission which were still classified at the time the original film was made by director Michael Anderson. "So much of it was still secret," said Jackson. "They weren't even allowed to show the bomb itself and had to create a fictionalised bomb."
I've seen the 1954 movie many times and they came pretty close
The project is due to start filming next year, with a budget of $30-40m (£16-21m).
So it won't hit the theaters until 2008
Posted by:Steve

#17  "These degraded days" are certainly here, Mom.

Amnesty Int'l redefines 'war crimes'
Posted by: Parabellum   2006-08-31 20:08  

#16  *deep sigh*
I am one with wishing that producers and directors would just please STOP with remaking old and satisfying movies! Jeeze, people, arent't there new heroes, new stories... let alone new wars!
But *another deep sigh* it will undoubtably make a really cool movie, in remake. But he absolutely, absolutely has to use Eric Coates' "Dambusters' March" in the score. He just has to. It's a classic. Custom commands, and all that.
OTO, do you realise that trashing a bit of infrastructure like an essential dam would likely be accounted to be a "war crime" in these degraded days?
Really... local civilians might be harmed. Might have to do without a bit of electrical service and all. Guy Gibson et al might have to look carefullu, the UN and Human Rights Watch and all might be taking an interest in this...
Posted by: Sgt. Mom   2006-08-31 19:35  

#15  One of the two remaining flying Lancasters was caught on Google Maps here.
Posted by: Parabellum   2006-08-31 19:18  

#14  Panacea targets never stopped a war.
Posted by: Curtis L   2006-08-31 18:09  

#13  Gibson's dog "Nigger" was dubbed into "Trigger" for the US market. The dog used in filming to play the part of Nigger was also called Nigger.

Man! This ain't gonna do Mel any good at all! Someone better call his agent right away.
Posted by: Zenster   2006-08-31 17:03  

#12  Mel Gibson was going to direct and possibly act in it

I doubt Mel's choice of uniform would have pleased many people.

Nice to see Jackson take on a time-honored classic. With modern effects, the dam-busting and deluge scenes should be much more exciting. I agree with others about the earnest tone of the original movie. There was no melodrama, just a gritty determined bunch of scientists and military men making sure Britain didn't end up under a Nazi boot heel.

I'll also agree as to Jackson making "The Hobbit". He needs to do this pronto before many of the cast *cough*Gandalf*cough* become unavailable. As an aside, I'll also note how, if New Zealand had any brains, they would constuct a massive "Rings" theme park in some secluded mountain valley, have it served by steam rail lines, and make uncountable gajillions of dollars. Imagine a Moria Mine Cart™ ride or an Isengard Parachute Drop. Horseback camping trips to Rohan, Hobbit hole accomodations. The possibilities are as endless as the potential revenues.
Posted by: Zenster   2006-08-31 17:01  

#11  Trivia for
The Dam Busters (1954):
The RAF supplied most of the aircraft, at a cost of 130 pounds per hour. This expense consumed 10% of the film's budget.
A cut of the film was spiced up for the American market. Additional scenes of a plane crashing were later removed after it was spotted that Warner Brothers had used WW2 footage of a Flying Fortress (the RAF used Lancasters).
The bombs shown in the movie were the wrong shape because the actual shape (a stubby cylinder) was still secret at the time.
Gibson's dog "Nigger" was dubbed into "Trigger" for the US market. The dog used in filming to play the part of Nigger was also called Nigger.
This is one of the films that George Lucas used clips from to edit the rough cut of Star Wars (1977) (which utilizes many features of the finale of this film quite closely, notably the briefing, the ground staff waiting for news, the troika formation of the attacking aircraft and so on). In Addition, the following exchange from this film is reproduced almost verbatim (with the exception of the characters' names) in "Star Wars": Gibson: "How many guns d'you think there are, Trevor?" Trevor: "I'd say there's about 10 guns - some in the field and some in the tower".
Wing Cmdr. Gibson mentioned the "Tirpitz" as a possible target. This German battleship was later sunk, by Sqn. 617, using 6-ton demolition bombs which were also designed by Dr. Barnes Wallis.
Feature film debut of Patrick McGoohan.
Footage used to show the bombs as they skipped on the surface of the water towards the dams was drawn from footage of the bombs being tested. The backspin placed on the bombs, which is what allowed them to skip, was a secret at the time. To conceal this fact, the bombs in the footage were painted over frame by frame.
Scenes of indoor testing of the model bomb were shot at the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington in the tanks where the actual tests took place.
Posted by: tu3031   2006-08-31 16:57  

#10  Yep, this is cool, sounds like the type of movie I might actually go to the theater to see. I wish he would do the "hobbit" movie - I really enjoyed that book and even that silly cartoon movie of it when I was a kid.
Posted by: Broadhead6   2006-08-31 16:48  

#9  Guess the rights to the Hobbit are still elusive.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2006-08-31 15:20  

#8  I saw "Dam Busters" recently - you'd think that Chinese DVD shops would only stock new releases, but they have a surprisingly good selection of obscure movies that can be quite good. There was an earnestness about the movie, you could tell that they were really trying to be factual. Quite a difference from today's movies where they just make stuff up and use technospeak.

But Peter Jackson and the rest of Hollywood really need to STOP REMAKING OLD MOVIES and come out with some new, fresh stuff. Really.
Posted by: gromky   2006-08-31 15:19  

#7  Instead of remembering him for LOTR, whenever I hear the name of Peter Jackson, I think of his first, ultra-low-budget movie, "Bad Taste."

It's nice to know there's a producer who can still do things "his way."
Posted by: Anonymoose   2006-08-31 14:10  

#6  BTW My grandfathers brother (great uncle) worked on the explosives.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2006-08-31 12:58  

#5  I think "nigger the black labrador" might not make the cast this time around...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2006-08-31 12:56  

#4  Allright, where's "Lancasters over Dresden" when we need him? I'm sure he could loan Peter a few.
Posted by: mcsegeek1   2006-08-31 11:37  

#3  ...This will be SO cool - worked with 617 Sqdn at Red Flag a couple times (they fly Tornados now) and they were great examples of the history and pride of the RAF.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2006-08-31 11:26  

#2  Paul Brickhill also wrote The Great Escape, another great book and movie (although Steve McQueen wasn't in the book).
Posted by: Bobby   2006-08-31 10:40  

#1  There are 17 known Avro Lancasters remaining in the world, two of which remain in airworthy condition, although few flying hours remain on their airframes and actual flying is carefully rationed. One is PA474 of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and the other is FM213 of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum.
Posted by: tu3031   2006-08-31 10:10  

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