Post by Dave Homewood on May 21, 2007 1:07:46 GMT 12
There are some fairly interesting articles coming out in the press now in relation to the new Dambusters film. I thought I'd post some up here. If you see any others out there, add them to this thread.
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DAMBUSTERS AT WAR OVER REMAKE OF CLASSIC
Sunday May 20,2007
By David Paul
A HOLLYWOOD remake of the classic film The Dam Busters has reignited a bitter row between veterans of the famous wartime raid on Germany.
Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson has hired Stephen Fry to write the script for the new £20million movie telling how Britain used bouncing bombs to destroy German dams during the Second World War.
But veterans of the raid, which took place 64 years ago last week, fear Fry will feature a Scottish RAF aircraft engineer called Jack Holsgrove in the new film.
Mr Holsgrove, a multi-millionaire property developer, did not feature in the original 1955 movie but claims he played a pivotal role in the historic raids by helping inventor Barnes Wallis solve technical problems with the bouncing bombs. In his book, called Dam Busters Away, Mr Holsgrove, 85, claims that as a 21-year-old he was recruited by Barnes Wallis and risked his life by planting the fuse in each bomb as the Lancaster bombers waited for the signal to head off to Germany from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire. Mr Holsgrove even alleges he had the job of giving the final decision about whether the Dambusters’ mission should get the go-ahead on the night of May 16, 1943.
However, veterans from the raid’s 617 Squadron dismissed his claims as a “pack of lies”, and have already threatened Mr Holsgrove with court action in order to get his book removed from libraries in Britain.
Last night David Moore, assistant secretary of the 617 Squadron Association, said veterans were delighted that a new movie would once again highlight the heroism of the Dambusters’ raid, but added: “The only fly in the ointment is Jack Holsgrove. His book is a pack of lies from start to finish.
“He says he checked the bombs, that’s a total lie. He never came anywhere near 617 Squadron, he was with 57 Squadron who also flew Lancasters from RAF Scampton.
www.express.co.uk/posts/view/7501
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Regional press news - this story published 11.5.2007
Day with a Dambusters actor was 'proudest moment' for cub reporter
By HoldtheFrontPage staff
Former Lincolnshire reporter Peter Hopper recalls the day the Skegness News sent him out to interview film star Richard Todd – but faced a two-mile walk to retrieve his bicycle after getting a lift with the actor from a remote stretch of coast.
News that Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is to remake the classic Second World War movie, The Dambusters, provides me with a graphic reminder of one of my proudest moments as a cub reporter on a weekly newspaper in Lincolnshire.
Part of the original film in the mid-1950s - the scenes where Barnes Wallis’s awesome bouncing bomb burst on impact when it hit the water, because it was being dropped from too great a height - was shot on a lonely part of the coastline two miles outside the seaside resort of Skegness.
I was 17 years old at the time and I was sent out on my bicycle to interview the star of the film, Richard Todd, who played the raid’s leader, Guy Gibson.
I waited on the edge of the set until filming ended for the day before I approached the actor for my big moment.
"Yes," he said to my request, "But you’ll have to jump in my car, we can talk on the way back to Skegness."
I did as he said, but the interview did not go as I intended, because Richard Todd was also a farmer, and all he really wanted to talk about was farming.
There was a pile of Farmers Weekly magazines in the back of the car, as if to emphasize that he was a real man of the soil.
I managed to get a few bits and pieces out of him about his film career, but I wasn’t really interested in the farming side of his life at that time, though I would have been later as I was to spend more than 30 years of my own career as an agricultural journalist in Lincolnshire and Suffolk.
I dare not tell one of my greatest film heroes that I would have to walk the whole two miles back to the film set to retrieve my bike, but I set off on the return journey on foot with a glad heart, feeling mighty pleased with my reporting coup.
It is only three years since I discovered the Lincolnshire home address of the now veteran actor Richard Todd, so I wrote to him about our encounter.
He graciously replied, and said he could well believe that he tended to harp on about farming rather than filming.
Before wishing me success on my forthcoming book on farming, the actor commented: "Sadly in many ways, I gave up actively farming years ago and now live in semi-retirement contemplating the rotting crops of other less fortunate country-folk."
www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/news/2007/05may/070511linc.shtml
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Dambusters to make a return to Scampton
Just Jane, East Kirkby Aviation Heritage Centre’s Lancaster Bomber, is likely to be used in Peter Jackson’s remake of The Dambusters.
THE AREA's RAF heritage will be celebrated through its inclusion in a remake of The Dambusters movie bu Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.
Jackson has visited the East Kirkby Aviation Heritage Centre to view the Lancaster Just Jane, one of only three working Lancasters in the world.
There are also plans to use a Lancaster from RAF Coningsby and shoot footage at RAF Scampton.
Jackson will produce the remake of this renowned moment of war history with Sir David Frost, who accompanied Mr Jackson to East Kirkby.
The script will be written by Stephen Fry who also visited the centre.
Museum curator Andrew Panton said: "They have not officially said they will use it but they have said when they come back it is likely they will."
Mr Jackson told Fred and Harold Panton, who own the aviation centre, most of the movie would be filmed in his native New Zealand, but some footage will be shot in England.
www.marketrasentoday.co.uk/news?articleid=2865620]
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DAMBUSTERS AT WAR OVER REMAKE OF CLASSIC
Sunday May 20,2007
By David Paul
A HOLLYWOOD remake of the classic film The Dam Busters has reignited a bitter row between veterans of the famous wartime raid on Germany.
Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson has hired Stephen Fry to write the script for the new £20million movie telling how Britain used bouncing bombs to destroy German dams during the Second World War.
But veterans of the raid, which took place 64 years ago last week, fear Fry will feature a Scottish RAF aircraft engineer called Jack Holsgrove in the new film.
Mr Holsgrove, a multi-millionaire property developer, did not feature in the original 1955 movie but claims he played a pivotal role in the historic raids by helping inventor Barnes Wallis solve technical problems with the bouncing bombs. In his book, called Dam Busters Away, Mr Holsgrove, 85, claims that as a 21-year-old he was recruited by Barnes Wallis and risked his life by planting the fuse in each bomb as the Lancaster bombers waited for the signal to head off to Germany from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire. Mr Holsgrove even alleges he had the job of giving the final decision about whether the Dambusters’ mission should get the go-ahead on the night of May 16, 1943.
However, veterans from the raid’s 617 Squadron dismissed his claims as a “pack of lies”, and have already threatened Mr Holsgrove with court action in order to get his book removed from libraries in Britain.
Last night David Moore, assistant secretary of the 617 Squadron Association, said veterans were delighted that a new movie would once again highlight the heroism of the Dambusters’ raid, but added: “The only fly in the ointment is Jack Holsgrove. His book is a pack of lies from start to finish.
“He says he checked the bombs, that’s a total lie. He never came anywhere near 617 Squadron, he was with 57 Squadron who also flew Lancasters from RAF Scampton.
www.express.co.uk/posts/view/7501
____________________________________________________
Regional press news - this story published 11.5.2007
Day with a Dambusters actor was 'proudest moment' for cub reporter
By HoldtheFrontPage staff
Former Lincolnshire reporter Peter Hopper recalls the day the Skegness News sent him out to interview film star Richard Todd – but faced a two-mile walk to retrieve his bicycle after getting a lift with the actor from a remote stretch of coast.
News that Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is to remake the classic Second World War movie, The Dambusters, provides me with a graphic reminder of one of my proudest moments as a cub reporter on a weekly newspaper in Lincolnshire.
Part of the original film in the mid-1950s - the scenes where Barnes Wallis’s awesome bouncing bomb burst on impact when it hit the water, because it was being dropped from too great a height - was shot on a lonely part of the coastline two miles outside the seaside resort of Skegness.
I was 17 years old at the time and I was sent out on my bicycle to interview the star of the film, Richard Todd, who played the raid’s leader, Guy Gibson.
I waited on the edge of the set until filming ended for the day before I approached the actor for my big moment.
"Yes," he said to my request, "But you’ll have to jump in my car, we can talk on the way back to Skegness."
I did as he said, but the interview did not go as I intended, because Richard Todd was also a farmer, and all he really wanted to talk about was farming.
There was a pile of Farmers Weekly magazines in the back of the car, as if to emphasize that he was a real man of the soil.
I managed to get a few bits and pieces out of him about his film career, but I wasn’t really interested in the farming side of his life at that time, though I would have been later as I was to spend more than 30 years of my own career as an agricultural journalist in Lincolnshire and Suffolk.
I dare not tell one of my greatest film heroes that I would have to walk the whole two miles back to the film set to retrieve my bike, but I set off on the return journey on foot with a glad heart, feeling mighty pleased with my reporting coup.
It is only three years since I discovered the Lincolnshire home address of the now veteran actor Richard Todd, so I wrote to him about our encounter.
He graciously replied, and said he could well believe that he tended to harp on about farming rather than filming.
Before wishing me success on my forthcoming book on farming, the actor commented: "Sadly in many ways, I gave up actively farming years ago and now live in semi-retirement contemplating the rotting crops of other less fortunate country-folk."
www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/news/2007/05may/070511linc.shtml
__________________________________________________
Dambusters to make a return to Scampton
Just Jane, East Kirkby Aviation Heritage Centre’s Lancaster Bomber, is likely to be used in Peter Jackson’s remake of The Dambusters.
THE AREA's RAF heritage will be celebrated through its inclusion in a remake of The Dambusters movie bu Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.
Jackson has visited the East Kirkby Aviation Heritage Centre to view the Lancaster Just Jane, one of only three working Lancasters in the world.
There are also plans to use a Lancaster from RAF Coningsby and shoot footage at RAF Scampton.
Jackson will produce the remake of this renowned moment of war history with Sir David Frost, who accompanied Mr Jackson to East Kirkby.
The script will be written by Stephen Fry who also visited the centre.
Museum curator Andrew Panton said: "They have not officially said they will use it but they have said when they come back it is likely they will."
Mr Jackson told Fred and Harold Panton, who own the aviation centre, most of the movie would be filmed in his native New Zealand, but some footage will be shot in England.
www.marketrasentoday.co.uk/news?articleid=2865620]
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