In my opinion, the film makers should have stuck to original footage for the raid scenes.

Here I am again dredging through my rusty memory. Am I right in believing the Dresden raid was filmed in its entirety? That there was one or more camera equiped aircraft circling the city over the duration of the raid and maybe even for a while after?

My children aged 5 and 3 very much enjoy Steve Irwin, he has/had such a wonderful sparkling enthusiasm and they have videos etc. of him with The Wiggles and all that sort of thing. I think he did a tremendous thing eliminating the pomposity of all these big game afficionados sneaking about in forests and so on. He created, and particularly for children, a sense of joy and relationship with wildlife. At breakfast this morning our children were showing me their video collection and telling me “he’s dead, he was stung by a sting ray”.

My heart goes out to his wife and young family.

And now in dubious taste … at about 11pm last night I received the first of two Steve Irwin jokes! It never ceases to amaze me how fast they come around. One of them was in particulalry poor taste and I won’t share it … but the other is harmless enough …

“Well of course he wasn’t wearing his shades. What? Raybans.”

Correct if I’m wrong as I may well be (no one else having commented on this) but aside from being the dog’s name, was “Nigger” also a coded signal of some sort? I’m trying to remember … there was “goner” I think signalling a succesful breach … there were also other call-signs or code-words or whatever you call them.

“a film that’s very true to the values of the era”

Jackson hits turbulence over doggy name
04 September 2006
By TOM CARDY

Peter Jackson is already being dogged by one tricky aspect of the Dambusters story that he will turn into a $76 million film next year – a racial slur.

Wing Commander Guy Gibson, head of the British mission that destroyed German dams in World War II, had a dog called Nigger. The dog features in the 1951 book The Dam Busters and the 1954 film of the same name – both sources for Jackson’s Dambusters to be shot in Wellington and Britain next year.

Jackson said his team would tread carefully over the name but had yet to decide what to do.

“It is not our intention to offend people. But really you are in a no-win, damned-if-you-do-and-damned-if-you-don’t scenario. If you change it, everyone’s going to whinge and whine about political correctness. And if you don’t change it, obviously you are offending a lot of people inadvertently.

“We haven’t made any decisions about what we’ll do. Everybody asks about the dog. Everybody who we spoke to over in England was, `What are you going to call the dog? What are you going to call the dog?’ We will just wait and see.”

Jackson unveiled plans on Thursday to produce the film. It will be directed by Kiwi first-timer Christian Rivers and backed by Hollywood studio Universal Pictures and Europe’s largest film company, StudioCanal.

Jackson said the film would not judge what the Royal Air Force did. After special bouncing bombs launched by Lancaster bombers destroyed the dams, 1200 people died in the flooding.

“We don’t want to make a film that is judging and moralising of the events from a 2006 perspective – that’s the job of a documentary film-makers. It’s just wrong to do that,” he said.

“We want to make a movie that is reflecting the values that existed in 1943 and the pressures people were under.

“It has become trendy, especially in England, to cast moral judgments on (the Royal Air Force’s) Bomber Command and the firebombing of German cities. I totally understand why.

“War is a horrible thing and a lot of terrible stuff happened. But that was a war that had to be won and the Nazis had to be defeated. I just think it’s wrong to apply modern politics to something that happened 61 years ago.”

Jackson said the film would not cost more than $US50 million – a modest budget by Hollywood standards. This meant more control.

“Everyone’s fear is that it will be Americanised and made in an overt Hollywood way with love stories and such. We just want to tell the story of that particular event in the war in a straight way.

“We’re not going up into that blockbuster budget range because then the freedom to do what we want to do would be much less. We want to make a film that feels like a British war movie, not a Hollywood war movie. It is really important to honour the feeling and the tone of the film.”

Rivers said he wanted the film to feel as close to what it was really like in 1943.

“The story itself is exciting and what they did is exciting. We don’t need to falsify anything or sensationalise anything, because it’s all there already. What we want to do is make a film that’s very true to the values of that era.”

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3786427a11,00.html

Quite so Moggy … I was just about to mutter something about context but you’ve beaten me to it.

I meant “specifically” Daz. Seems PJ and his director Christian Rivers have spent some time researching et al … including a trip to canada to fly in a Lanc (CWH’s obviously). I’m assuming “much of the work is done” means the background has been researched, the storyboard mostly if not completely done, and the scripts and so on well under way.

But I don’t know that … hence my question. It just struck me that this project may be well advanced indeed.

DOMINION POST, WELLINGTON NZ

$76m Dambusters comes to Wellington
01 September 2006
By TOM CARDY

First there was King Kong and now another childhood dream is about to come true for film-maker Peter Jackson – a $76 million new version of the classic film The Dam Busters.

Jackson reveals today that he will produce the film, to be known as Dambusters, based on one of World War II’s most daring feats when Royal Air Force bombers destroyed German dams using bouncing bombs.

Most of the US$50 million film will be shot in Wellington, where about 10 full-scale replicas of the Lancaster bombers used in the 1943 raid will be built by visual effects company Weta Workshop. Some filming is also likely in Britain.

“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.”

The film will be based on the book The Dam Busters, the 1954 British film of the same name – and new information about the top-secret mission, which included two New Zealanders and an American as well as British and Canadian crews.

Jackson, 44, first saw the 1954 film, which focused on inventor Barnes Wallis and mission commander Guy Gibson, at a Wellington cinema when he was 12. He had been fascinated by the mission, but 10 years ago when he first considered remaking the film he was told Hollywood star Mel Gibson had bought the film rights, held by British broadcaster Sir David Frost, and hoped to star and direct.

“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.”

In May Britain’s Mail on Sunday reported plans for the film, which Jackson at the time dismissed. He said yesterday he was then still negotiating the rights to make the film, which got the green light only last week.

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.

“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,” Sir David said.

Computer-generated visual effects and models will depict much of the mission. Jackson had not ruled out using working Lancasters, but the 10 replicas would not fly.

“You do have to have them on the airfield and actors walking around them. We’re not going to resort to CG (computer-generated effects) for every single shot in this movie.”

It was likely a British screenwriter would be hired. The cast could include A-list stars, but director Christian Rivers said they were most likely to cast actors in their 20s for the main roles. Wing Commander Gibson was only 24 and some pilots were as young as 20.

“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.

Jackson did not expect problems fitting the film in with others being made at his Wellington studios, including sci-fi epic Halo and The Lovely Bones, which he will direct.

Jackson said Halo was likely to start shooting early next year – and it was possible Halo and Dambusters could be shot about the same time. The Lovely Bones, for which he expected a draft script to be completed next week, would be filmed later.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/0,2106,3782770a6000,00.html

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For me the kicker is that Peter Jackson gives a damn about historic aviation. Reflect on his own involvement and rest assured.