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Takeoff looms for Dambusters Movie Remake...

Corky

Practically Family
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507
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West Los Angeles
Takeoff looms for Dambusters Movie Remake.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/2383809/Takeoff-looms-for-Dambusters

2383807.jpg


Director Peter Jackson has unveiled the first glimpses of his Dambusters movie.

Jackson, the King Kong of New Zealand's film industry, visited Hood Aerodrome in Masterton yesterday to oversee a mockup of a World War II airfield, complete with a full-scale replica of a Lancaster bomber.

It took a large crew a week to put together the replica, which is one of 10 designed by Weta Workshop and built in China out of fibreglass and steel.

Sandbags, guns, tanks and hired extras in war uniform all helped to set the scene.

Although the Jackson-produced NZ$52-million movie about 617 Squadron's famous dam assault was announced to the world in 2006, little has been said until now about its progress other than confirmation that British writer and comedian Stephen Fry would write the script.

The film is being directed by Kiwi first-time director Christian Rivers.

It has also emerged that Fry was asked to come up with alternative names for squadron leader Guy Gibson's dog, Nigger, but that executive producer Sir David Frost rejected them all.

"Guy sometimes used to call his dog 'Nigsy', so I think that's what we will call it," Sir David told the Daily Mail newspaper. "Stephen has been coming up with other names, but this is the one I want."

* * * * *​

And it might be useful to remember that one Albert Speer, Hitler's Minister of Armaments at the time, in his book Inside the Third Reich said that when the Dams were attacked he thought the war would be over in a matter of weeks if the Allied attacks continued until all of Germany's dams were gone. Speer could not understand why a country that possessed the weapons and skill to destroy Germany's main sources of power would demonstrate the ability to perform this task a couple of times and then quit.

Best of luck
 

Shangas

I'll Lock Up
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6,116
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Melbourne, Australia
"Guy sometimes used to call his dog 'Nigsy', so I think that's what we will call it," Sir David told the Daily Mail newspaper. "Stephen has been coming up with other names, but this is the one I want."

Damn revisionist history. The dog's name was NIGGER, and Nigger it should remain! How is that offensive? It was the name of Gibson's dog and if they're going to do a remake of the film, they should do it right and retain the names. It wasn't considered wrong in the 1950s to name the dog Nigger, so why not now?
 

byronic

One of the Regulars
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188
Location
Middle East
i couldn't agree more! i'm half dreading this remake due to the Pc nonsense surrounding the dogs' name, can't people take it in the context of its time and realise that it wasn't meant to be offensive back then? I mean, it's not a word I would ever use, and I would certainly shun the company of someone who does use it- in the present day.
Anyway if Stephen Fry and David Frost are on board maybe it won't be the disaster i anticipated, fingers crossed!
(I should like to point out that my ancestry is half-Irish, half British- with a touch of Scots. I have on different occasions been labelled a 'Brit', & a 'Paddy', but because it was someones way of easily tagging me I did not take offense, because none was intended.)
One such occasion stands out in my mind, whereby an 'Irish gentleman' called me a 'black & tan', simply because of my English accent. I could have pointed out that my great-uncle had been in the old IRA, and had been fighting the black and tans during the Irish war of indepenence in the '20's, but I did not believe his comment worthy of a reply.
But forgive me for digressing! Has anyone noticed the briefing scene in the original 'Dambusters'?, wasn't that the recently late Patrick McGoohan who was the sentry shutting the doors , in an early, uncredited role?
Also, are any loungers aware that N--grs ghost appears in the closing credits of the movie?
It'll be interesting to see if his spectre shows up in the remake too....
 

TheLimey

Familiar Face
Messages
56
Location
Toulouse, France
I can't see why they even want to remake it. What can they add to the original masterpiece, appart from heaps of CG?
There are loads of great "stories" from World War II which have not been put on screen yet...
 

Shangas

I'll Lock Up
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6,116
Location
Melbourne, Australia
I have no quams with the remake of a film...even this one...provided that it's good. And with all the political correct...I struggle to find a polite word here...that's going around, I doubt that this will be very good film.

In the old days, you made something and you made it good and let the audience cheer, clap or curse over it later. These days, it seems like everything has to be dumbed down, oversimplified, cleaned up, censored and politically corrected until it's barely recognisable. You cannot please everyone in this world and political correctness is a pathetic attempt to do just that. The dog's name is Nigger and Nigger it should be called in this film. You don't hear people calling Hitler "the guy with the toothbrush moustache who conquered Europe in the 1930s", for fear of upsetting Jews and Germans, do you?

Personally I have mixed feelings about this film. I've seen the original several times, each time coming away with a big smile at a classic of cinema, and while I'm sure the new film will have several excellent points about it, I can't help feeling like that it'll be altered to suit today's, oversensitive, letigious audiences, who cry "murder!" at the mention of the word "black". Instead, it must be "a human male with a dark complextion". Lord help us.
 

Slim Portly

One Too Many
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1,283
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Las Vegas
I just added the original to my Netflix que, and wouldn't you know there is a current review there where the viewer gave the film three stars out of five only because of the dog's name!
 

Shangas

I'll Lock Up
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6,116
Location
Melbourne, Australia
If Mr. Fry's writing is as good as his acting and audiobook recording, I'm sure this production may have something in it, after all. He's quite a good actor.
 

Spitfire

I'll Lock Up
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5,078
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark.
I see one good resaon for a remake.
Given the cast it will propably get a lot of young people in the cinema. Youngsters who find black and white movies boring.
having said that, I might add, that I am happy it's not a Hollywood production. then half the Lancasters would have been filled up with american crews and Les Knight (the pilot who hit the first dam) would've been from Virginia. Only joking, but I think you gents get my meaning. :)

And yes - the dog's name is nigger.
Either that or get a golden retriever and call it Goldie.
 

PADDY

I'll Lock Up
Bartender
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7,425
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METROPOLIS OF EUROPA
If...it engages a younger generation...

...and ignites an interest in WWII among people who have very little knowledge about it, then surely that is a positive thing.
 

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