Posted on 08/31/2006 8:45:18 PM PDT by Hal1950
Another movie coming up from famous director Peter Jackson who announced that he’s gathering a team for a “Dam Busters” remake.
As a child, Peter Jackson said he was a real fan of the 1954 version of “Dam Busters”, a movie based on the book with the same name written by Paul Brickhill, which revolved around inventor Barnes Wallis and mission commander Guy Gibson. He was 12 when he watched the movie for the first time.
“I always thought that out of all the World War II true stories this is one of the most extraordinary," Jackson, a longtime aviation and war buff, told The Dominion Post.
"My parents were English and they were both involved in the war. When it comes to World War II, I'm very based in this English mindset. Mum and Dad talked about it all the time. I almost feel like I lived through World War II."
About 10 years ago, he thought about producing a remake of the movie but he was surprised to find out that Hollywood star Mel Gibson had bought the film rights, held by British broadcaster Sir David Frost, and hoped to star and direct. Jackson said his agent “came back and said that [film company] Icon had the rights and that Mel Gibson was going to direct and possibly act in it. Obviously that didn't happen".
"I'd been chasing it for a long, long time but I forgot about it for a while at that point," Jackson said.
"Then, about two years ago, my agent got back to me to say Mel Gibson had dropped out and they were looking around for suitable film-makers to take it on. That's when I jumped on board."
Speculation over a possible “Dam Busters” remake was initially sparked in May, when Jackson reportedly spent a day filming one of the last surviving Lancaster bombers that took part in the mission.
The story of one of the most daring RAF mission in the Second World War was immortalized by director Michael Anderson starring Michael Redgrave, and it recounts the true story of Britain's military developing bouncing bombs to blow up German dams.
Sir David, on board as one of the executive producers, said: "This is a dream come true. It turned out that, even before we met to discuss it, Peter and I had both been excited by the idea of a remake of The Dam Busters.
“Peter Jackson is the ideal producer, not only because of his film-making genius, but also because of his aeronautical expertise and unique understanding of the human pressures wrought by war”, he added.
Jackson said it would be "as authentic as possible and as close to the spirit of the original as possible".
"So much of it was still secret," said Jackson. "They weren't even allowed to show the bomb itself and had to create a fictionalized bomb. We also want to include a lot more about the development of the bomb. Barnes Wallis (the inventor of the bouncing bomb) had to overcome incredible bureaucratic hurdles to get the bomb taken seriously.”
"It was seen as a crackpot, vaguely nutty idea. The RAF, as were all defense departments at the time, was always being approached by eccentrics claiming they had the weapon to end the war. But he persevered.”
“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.
"One of the things that's really important for us, which isn't in the original film, is to capture how young these pilots really were," Rivers said.
The shooting is set to start early next year with a budget of $30-40m (£16-21m) and will be directed by Christian Rivers, the animation director on King Kong who will make his directorial debut on the project, renamed “Dambusters”.
It will be backed by Hollywood's Universal Pictures and Europe's biggest film company, StudioCanal. Jackson's agent Ken Kamins and Sir David will be executive producers.
Well, Kong just wasn't the artistic triumph (or smash hit) everyone hoped for.
Jackson won armfuls of Oscars for Return Of The King... Kong didn't even get nominated for anything, and rightly so.
Despite it's impressive modern sheen, it was basically just a third re-telling of the same old story with no dramatic interest for the viewer.
Thanks for the info! I think the movie alteration can be forgiven -- otherwise, we wouldn't have had McQueen!
Wrong on both counts.
It was basically just a third re-telling of the same old story with no dramatic interest for the viewer.
Okay, scratch that. Wrong on all three accounts. I recall applause in the theater at the end of the movie, which I'd never heard before.
Kong didn't even get nominated for anything, and rightly so.
Ouch. Wrong on all FOUR accounts. It was nominated for best sound.
yeah but who could forget the grit that hollywood added with those American characters?
The focused resolve of "the cooler king"? The scenes where he just bounced that baseball for months on end to while away the bordom?
Hollywood did well with that. Its film classic
My grandfather took me to see the great escape at the fox theater in atlanta in i think 65.absolutely loved it and still do.McQueen helped make the flick and have been a fan of his ever since.
Spectacularly wrong. Despite being a remake, its take on the material was so filled with imagination and creativity, I found it to be one of the freshest and most original movies of 2005.
It's one of my favorite movies. Just perfectly cast.
PJ certainly did justice to the Greatest Novel of the Twentieth Century, I think he'd do fine with Dam Busters
French caption:
Largage d'une bombe cylindrique
Looks like a cylinder.
Andy Serkis will play the bomb. They'll use motion capture and CGI to recreate the effect of him rolling across the water ...
Most of Hollywood would root for Hitler nowadays, if it would bring down Bush. But Jackson is not like that.
BTW I am a Tolkien fan, those flicks were pretty good, too much left out, too much put in. I could understand the neccesity of the Liv Tyler put in parts, (Hollyweird romance scenes), but the SOB skipped half of the last book!
The 3 hr monkey movie, was a close runner up for the Nobull prize for curing insomnia. First prize still goes to Dune.
Yeah. Rule #1 don't even think you can improve on a classic!
Rule #2 Don't believe your own PR!
That's stupid. He wasn't trying to "improve" anything. The new one is a loving tribute to the old classic, which is Jackson's own all-time favorite movie.
To get this to happen, the bombers had to be flying at the right height, at the right speed, and release at the right time, all at once.
The bombsights were something out of the ordinary too-- IIRC they were jury-rigged together with floodlights and wood supports, so that when the lights intersected on the water (height OK), and some landmark (maybe the towers at either end of the dam?) were OK, AND the speed was right, THEN the release should occur.
They took endless runs practicing.
Source: my hazy memory, cribbed from Time-Life books on WWII.
Cheers!
Cheers!
Dambusters is the movie that Bog Geldof is watching as Pink in the movie version of Pink Floyd's The Wall. They show footage from the film (including keeping the dog's name n***er). In the DVD commentary, I think Roger Waters even makes a point to ridicule Americans being so defensive about that word. (which is funny since he's a grade-A lib).
DHF
Love tribute????? BWAAAAAAA!!!! Yeah right. Hollywood makes loving tributes. Hollywood makes remakes because it can't think up original storys like King Kong anymore, it was hugely popular, and they thought they could make it better! Only thing is that they made it more boring.
When I walked out of the movie with my 8 year old son, I asked him how he liked it. he told me that he liked the B&W one better. CGI does not make a movie, and with Peter Jacksons over blown, 1 hour too long epics, its clear he is more into himself then a good story!
Yah know, ever since the awful Pearl Harbor movie, I've been waiting for some aerial epics to be made or remade, fictional, like Sky Captain, or historical. The CGI aircraft were wonderful!
I have been VERY disappointed.
I am happy to see that Dambusters is being remade, but what about some action-intense movies? WWI, WWII or just plain fiction. Maybe a remake of 633 Squadron?
Something?
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