Here is an update from Stuff.co.nz from three hours ago. It says they denied the story to the reporter who then ran it anyway. How fricken dumb are they?
Jackson bounces dam claim 09 May 2006
By TOM CARDY
Kiwi director Peter Jackson has dismissed a newspaper report that he is working on a $290 million remake of the classic World War II movie The Dam Busters.
Britain's Mail on Sunday reported that Jackson would work on the movie with Sir David Frost, who bought the rights last year to a book on the British air squadron that dropped bouncing bombs on German dams.
The article quoted an unnamed source as saying Jackson recently spent a day filming one of the last surviving Lancaster bombers in preparation for the remake of the 1954 British film and had met RAF veterans in New Zealand.
It also said Jackson's personal assistant, Matthew Dravitzki, would attend a Dam Busters reunion in Britain later this month.
But Mr Dravitzki said Jackson – a war buff who owns several World War I biplanes – had no plans to remake The Dam Busters, nor was he going to a reunion.
"We denied the story at the time but they've run with it anyway. It's just one of those continuing speculative things. Because of Peter's involvement in aviation and his involvement with the Aviation Heritage Centre in Omaka, people just tend to assume we are involved in an aviation movie. It is not the case. Peter will not be directing a remake of The Dam Busters."
Mr Dravitzki said Jackson's studios were busy being used for fantasy film The Waterhorse. While the director was always considering new projects, the only two confirmed were Halo this year – of which he is an executive producer – and directing The Lovely Bones next year.
Last year The New York Times apologised to Jackson after incorrectly reporting that he was making a film Wolf Totem, based on a Chinese novel.
Other rumours about Jackson war movies have included one based on the Anzacs at Gallipoli and a World War II zombie saga.
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Also this from Nine MSN - note the Te Papa news!news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=68090Jackson rules out Dam Busters remakeTuesday May 9 08:41 AEST
New Zealand film director Peter Jackson will not be directing any remake of the World War 2 film The Dam Busters, says a spokesman.
Jackson was working on the screenplay of his next movie The Lovely Bones, said Matt Dravitzky.
He rejected any suggestion Jackson would be directing a $NZ293 million ($A244 million) re-make of The Dam Busters, as reported by Britain's The Mail on Sunday newspaper.
The only other film work Jackson had scheduled was as executive producer of a $100 million movie version of the video game Halo.
Filming of The Lovely Bones, based on the book by Alice Sebold, will start early next year.
The Mail on Sunday said Jackson had already done test shots in New Zealand of a Lancaster bomber, one of only two of the 617 Squadron planes still airborne, and had met RAF veterans in New Zealand to discuss the project.
But Mr Dravitzky said Jackson's interest in planes from World Wars 1 and 2 was well known, and whenever an aviation movie from those eras came around, journalists assumed it would attract his attention.
In fact, Jackson was working on replicas for the Aviation Heritage Centre at Omaka, near Blenheim.
Jackson and Weta workshop are undertaking the bulk of some of the exhibits.
Jackson recently cut a special deal with Te Papa to obtain a vintage Sopwith Camel airplane engine for the display at Omaka Aerodrome.The 1954 Dam Busters film which featured Richard Todd as Wing Commander Guy Gibson and Michael Redgrave as scientist Barnes Wallis told the story of a "bouncing bomb" that skipped across the surface of lakes to destroy two hydro-electric dams.
The movie about the 1943 Operation Chastise, in which 19 Lancasters destroyed the Mohne and Eder dams in Germany's industrial Ruhr Valley, was based on Paul Brickhill's 1951 book about the 617 Squadron's low-level bombing mission.
Its film rights are now owned by former TV entertainer Sir David Frost, and his company, Paradine Productions, said it had not heard of any involvement by Jackson.
