Peter Jackson's Dambusters

Peter Jackson, the celebrated director of Lord Of The Rings, has confirmed plans to remake classic film 'The Dam Busters'. The $US50 million movie will be shot in the UK as well as in Jackson's native New Zealand next year.

The WingNut Films production will be based on the book The Dam Busters, the 1954 British film of the same name. The story is based on a heroic and daring mission in World War II when Royal Air Force bombers destroyed German dams using bouncing bombs. The Dambusters chronicles the story of Operation Chastise, a top-secret RAF bombing mission designed to strike a decisive blow against the Nazi war machine at the height of its aggression. A "bouncing" bomb which could skip across water was developed by scientist, Barnes Wallis, but to be effective, the bomb had to be dropped from close range and at very low altitude. In specially-modified Lancaster aircraft, the airmen trained for a single mission, whose potential for success was small.

The film will be called simply 'Dambusters' and Christian Rivers - who has worked with Jackson for over 17 years - will make his directorial debut on the remake. Christian Rivers won an academy award this year for his work with Weta Digital for special effects for King Kong.
Computer-generated visual effects and models will depict much of the mission and 10 replicas of the bombers.

In a statement Jackson said it was one of the most remarkable true stories to come out of World War II. When the original movie was released many details of the raid were still closely guarded secrets. "It has since been declassified by the British Government, making the dynamics of the story and the people involved even more intriguing," Jackson said.