So "DAMBUSTERS" re-make, who will play?

Oh god, hollywood here we come!

It will be an american crew flying german captured bombers that are being shot at by the ‘evil’ RAF…

ala… U-571.

Andy

With the Japanese giving top cover?

Ali

WOW!

I have just finished watching Dambusters (again) and each time I watch it the sheer brilliance of the film making never ceases to amaze me.

Alan Cummings could play any of the crew members. He looks very “English”.

Oh god, hollywood here we come!

It will be an american crew flying german captured bombers that are being shot at by the ‘evil’ RAF…

ala… U-571.

Andy

But this time it will be done EXACTLY how it was really done.

Ali :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Alan W Cooper’s footnote on page 16 of The Men who Breached the Dams, speaking of the Ministry of Aircraft Production’s Air Attack on the Dams Committee reads as follows:

“The Committee played a helpful role in subsequent events and must not be confused with the fictitious and very hostile committee portrayed in the ‘Dambuster’ film.”

Maybe we are tending to see The Dam Busters – marevellous film though it was – through slightly rose-tinted glasses? I’d be as livid as anyone if the new film was introduced as a work of fiction inspired by the Dams raid, thus allowing the makers to play fast and loose with the original story. Think Enigma…

But my point is that the story of Barnes Wallis, official indifference, Churchill’s over-ruling of Bomber Harris, Guy Gibson and 617 Sqn is strong enough to merit being retold many times. And if this can be done in print, then why not on film?

William

So has this been confirmed? Is Jackson really taking this project on? L:ast I heard from a magazine editor friend of his in NZ Jackson owns like half the WWI planes in NZ and wants to do a WWI flying epic…so to hear that he’s taking on a WWII flick is a surprise…but after seeing King Kong and what a spectacular job he did there I think he’ll do the movie some justice! But someone please confirm for me that he IS doing this??

M

It’s true or so they say. But this time it will be done EXACTLY how it was really done and it will be Tom Cruise playing “Chuck” Gibson an Eagle Squadron driver brought in for the mission.

Ali :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

So has this been confirmed? Is Jackson really taking this project on? L:ast I heard from a magazine editor friend of his in NZ Jackson owns like half the WWI planes in NZ and wants to do a WWI flying epic…so to hear that he’s taking on a WWII flick is a surprise…but after seeing King Kong and what a spectacular job he did there I think he’ll do the movie some justice! But someone please confirm for me that he IS doing this??

M

Dambusters 2

I think alot of people hear the word remake and it sends shivers down their spines. And we’re all probably thinking of the recent Pearl Harbour as a classic example of how not to do it. I’m sure just as many Americans cringed when they saw it.

I do reckon that Peter Jackson would have a bit of integrity when it comes to making the film, and even Steven Spielberg has gone on record saying the original is one of his favourite war films.

What it will do is introduce a new generation to the story who may never have heard it otherwise, which can only be a good thing.

Maybe if the British film industry decided to make some fresh movies with war or conflict as the subject, on campaigns fought by British servicemen, we wouldn’t all be getting so annoyed about Hollywoods interpretation of WW2.

As for computer generated effects, the scene in Band of Brothers when a squadron of Mosquitos fly by at low level, and the last one comes along engine splutterring and prop feathered….thats just fantastic, and impossible to recreate with real aircraft.

Don’t forget Guy Gibson was only 24 when he lead the dams raid so a young,short ,boyish looking actor would need to be cast. Even Richard Todd was really too old for the part in 1954 (36 I think).

Bst Wishes,

Colin

On the topic of Gibson’s dog: was the name ‘NIGGER’ wiped from one of the UK TV showings circa 2,000? I’m sure I watched it once and the name ‘Trigger’ was used.

Best Wishes.

Sounds like a film in the making there.

As for a DB remake as has been mentioned earlier the emphasis on the youth of the crews should be shown. The crews I think should be made up of fresh young talent possibly some of the cast who played the wartime crew in the beebs ‘Night Flight’. For the ‘top brass’ I would cast:

Wallis – Martin Clunes
Harris – Ronnie Barker would be my first choice but sadly no longer with us so I would choose Michael Gambon or David Jason
Whitworth – Kris Marshall (BT ads)
Cochrane – Robert Lindsay

Ali:

The alien archaeologists would probably conclude that we worshipped a god called *******. So many lines of dialogue would be found along the lines of ‘what the *******’s going on’, ‘what in *******’s name’ and so on. Yuk!

Hurrifan:
It’s just a rumour that we eat babies for breakfast served up on stolen hubcaps rather than dinner plates. I pay good money for my hubcaps! 😀
Besides, Bob Hutchinson, Gibson’s wireless operator, was a Scouser. His name was on the war memorial plaque at my old school (Liverpool Institute). Don’t think ED932 ever lost its wheels? :rolleyes:

Everyone:

I’ve double-checked against Alan W Cooper’s book, The Men who breached the Dams. For the sake of accuracy, from Cooper’s detailed appendices, it looks as if the oldest pilot was Robert Barlow at 31 (ED927) and the oldest aircrew member was Robert Patterson, Cyril Anderson’s flight engineer on ED924. He was 36, and the old man of the Dam Busters by a good four years or so.
There are a few aircrew that Cooper doesn’t give a year of birth for, so it’s possible that one or two may have slipped through the net. But the overall picture is of group of men nearly all in their mid-20s.
Cooper’s book, incidentally, illustrates that point that there’s more than one way of telling the Dams Raid story. It doesn’t have the immediacy, atmosphere or pace of Paul Brickhill’s book or Gibson’s own account, but it is packed with hard facts and details.

William

Postscript. Curse these automatically generated asterisks! I meant to write an ‘f’ and then four asterisks, but it wouldn’t let me even do that. I’m sure you all know WTF I mean. :diablo:

Just thinking for a minute. What would happen if in a few thousand years and the human race is extinct. Alien archaeologists and anthropologists find a DVD collection and play them. Suddenly we find that they call the planet Hollywood and it’s ruled by a race of warrior kings called Cruise, Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Snipes. These warrior kings, like the Arthur of old, look towards their sages called George and Tony who were bastions of peace and lawfulness and had a mighty power called spin (A minor Queen called Wonder Woman had a similar power). Taking their wisdom and power; kings Cruise, Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Snipes would be made imortal in order for them to put the worlds problems to right. They would travel the globe with a powerful weapon called friendly which would fire on all wrong doers and even members of their own side, who were not pure, were not safe. They were a mighty race the aliens would think as they read storys or their deeds. They vanquished the enemies or their race and the aliens could be left with only one conclusion. These mighty sages must be part of a different species as the people George and Tony counselled constantly said they were talking bull**it. The aliens would be pleased that they had found a culture so mighty but the quest for the truth was on and cracking the bull**it code. Bull**it was the source of their great wisdom but the search may take several lifetimes as they were left with scant clues but many questions. Where did the bull**it come from? Did this mighty power called spin have anything to do with the bull**it or was it one and the same? If you apply spin to the bull**it would it be spread around to all and what was this mighty communcations system called the fan as the mighty kings who served the sages constantly referred to the bull**it hitting it.

Ali 🙂

Yeah, Let’s have the Yank’s bombing the Dams…. In broad daylight….. with Horten 229’s defending….. and using ‘Gibsons’ 21st century ‘P.C.’ dog/codename…. SNOWBALL.

Be nice to have some realism for a change – after all; they saved Burma, invented the moving tailplane AND found/retreived the Enigma machine, among others. 😎

I loved the recovery of the Enigma machine. I did notice that with all the firing of automatic weapons inside the pressure hull of a submarine they were using the new ammo designed by that Irish American guy Rick O’Shea. 😉 :rolleyes:

Ali

.. but big brother wont allow!!!!

Particularly when big brother is a scouser too 😡

Moggy

Yeah, Let’s have the Yank’s bombing the Dams…. In broad daylight….. with Horten 229’s defending….. and using ‘Gibsons’ 21st century ‘P.C.’ dog/codename…. SNOWBALL.

Be nice to have some realism for a change – after all; they saved Burma, invented the moving tailplane AND found/retreived the Enigma machine, among others. 😎

Scouse,

not too often that i agree with anyone or anything ( BEING A :dev2: !!!! ) that comes from Liverpool but reckon you have it spot on…they need to emphasise the youth of those who die in a war….you only have to walk amongst some of those grey stone markers, as i did last weekend, to feel the utter waste…most of those who died where younger than some of the ” kids ” i work with…

So show it as it was , not some glorified crap from the good ole US of A ,pick some younger actors but people who can treat the role with the seriousness it deserves…let it be seen that its the kids who go out and show fortitude and courage beyond their years.. and its the kids who die as well..

this newer version cannot and will not replace the original….there will never be another Gibson like Richard Todd’s or Redgrave’s Wallace …but if it brings the courage seen in the face of oblivion, the need to stand up for what you KNOW is a just cause , if it brings this to the fore…shows it to a younger audience, then great i hope it works…

but PLEASE no placenta eating twit !!! 😡 would have used stronger and more discriptive word but big brother wont allow!!!!

If it’s going to be remade in Hollywood we all know it’s going to be total rubbish.

Ali

Don’t you bounce that bladdy bomb at me!

You’re only supposed to blow the bladdy dam off!

how about Ian McKellen for Wallis?

William

Or what about Michael Caine as wallis.

James