Actor to play Guy Gibson named

[flyjoe180]

Scots actor James McAvoy is in talks to star in the new $US100 million ($NZ131 milion) Dam Busters film, it was reported today.

The Scottish actor, who is tipped for an Oscar for his role as Robbie Turner in Atonement, has met director Christian Rivers and producers David Frost and Peter Jackson, the Daily Mail newspaper reports.

The 28-year-old will play Wing Commander Guy Gibson who led the 617 Squadron dropping three bouncing bombs in Germany during the World War 2.

The film, which may also star Ian McKellen as scientist Barnes Wallis, will be shot in Wellington, using replica Lancaster bombers built in China.

Stephen Fry, who wrote the screenplay, wouldn't confirm James was in the cast, but said: "He would certainly be the kind of person one would naturally think of. Gibson was young and glamorous and fresh-faced. It would be stupid not to look at an actor like James McAvoy."

Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave portrayed Gibson and Wallis respectively in the 1954 film The Dam Busters.

- NZPA


www.tv3.co.nz/News/EntertainmentNews/tabid/186/Default.aspx?ArticleID=39979

[flyjoe180]

I see the Lancaster replicas are beng built in China. Will they be plastic or something? I would have thought the skills would have exsisted here in NZ to build such replicas.

[smithy]

All comes down to money Joe. They will have gotten them on the cheap from up there.

I believe that for the Lord of the Rings movies they got some old chap in China to do the chainmail for the armour.

Maybe it's the same bloke!

[flyjoe180]

Oh well, so long as we get to see them in accessible displays after the movie then who cares where they were built, right?

[Dave Homewood]

Rumour has it that the original replica was built in Wellington and then moulded off. The moulds went to China to duplicate the Lancs on the cheap. It must cost a bit to have them freighted back to NZ and to the UK, etc.

[phil82]

Afternoon all!

If you haven't seen James McAvoy in Atonement, do so; it's brilliant. McAvoy has absolutely no trace of a Scots accent by the way, and I think he would do a good Guy Gibson. I just wonder if the film will portray the real Gibson or the folk-hero version?

I recall as a young man in England regarding Gibson as the consummate British hero, and continued that view in the RAF, which I joined in 1957, because there were lots of heroes around who were clearly wartime pilots now filling desk jobs.

Later on in life when you get to read more authoritative history and bigraphies, you come to realise that "come the moment, come the man' and Gibson excelled as a wartime leader, albeit one detested by his crews and the rest of the RAF! The most recent reading is a book by Max Hastings, or Sir Max Hastings as he is now, in which he describes Gibson as the archetype opf the aerial warrior, but in reality a much more complex character.

He was born in India and pampered by large numbers of servants. His mother took him to England when the marriage fell apart, and he never saw his father again. His mother became an alcoholic, and you can now see the dysfunctional aspects creeping in!

He joined the RAF at 18, but was graded average as a pilot, but lower than that as a comanion. In particular, and this vice never left him, he was rude and condescending to junior ranks, especially to ground crew. By the time he got to 617 Sqn and a Lancaster,, even his own crew were strangers. He seems to have felt disadain and impatience characteristic of his attitude to other ranks.

As I say, McAvoy will have a tough job if the film portrays Gibson as he was! Despite the history, Gibson spent just four months with 617.

[Dave Homewood]

In the old movie, his previous crew who were to go on leave all volunteered to stay with Gibson. Did that really happen?

I have heard before that he was rude and arrogant, and I guess he's much like others of the same mould like Bader, Yeager and Galland who also were brilliant pilots but apparently right sods to work with or know. It would make for an interesting film to portray him as the arrogant type he apparently was, a real contrast to set it aside from the original film. Apparently he was having big trouble with his marriage too at the time of the raids, but his wife isn't mentioned in the first film.

Good to hear from you again Colin.

[Dave Homewood]

Here's a photo of McAvoy by the way


And one of Gibson

[Dave Homewood]

Note the photo of Richard Todd on this Dambusters page standing in front of Gibson's portrait. Is that a replica set of Gibson's awards? Or Todd's own medals he's wearing?
www.tonycunnane.co.uk/dambusters.htm

[phil82]

The bit about his crew is probably cinematic licence.Gibson's own crew were almost unknown to him.

He was unfaithful to his wife, and to his 'girlfriend' at Scampton, a WAAF Cpl by the name of Margaret North, which was an unusual relationship given he frowned on fraternization with 'other ranks'.

He was so disliked incidentally, that his manuscript of 'The Enemy Coast Ahead' published after his death, was sanitized by Paul Brickhill in the film starring Richard Todd. For sure, it would seem he was nothing like the character played by Todd.

In the end, Gibson flew an incredible 72 missions in Bomber Command, at a time when 30 was virtually considered unsurvivable. He hadn't flown for some time after the Dams Raids, but persisted in demanding more operations, one of which, in a Mosquito, killed him and his navigator. The cause was never established, although he had been told to stay above 10,000', an instruction he ignored and flew home at low level. Chances are his ego finally got the better of him.

[phil82]

Todd is wearing his own medals; he was an Officer in the Parachute Regiment, and played the part of his boss, Major John Howard, in the film "A Bridge too Far". He also appeared as a Para in the film "D-Day"

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Colin, interesting info there. I'd forgotten that Todd had been a Para.

[fletcherfu24]

What they gonna call the dog?............. ;D

[Parrotfish]

phil82 said:

played the part of his boss, Major John Howard, in the film "A Bridge too Far".

The Longest Day.

Dog?

[corsair67]

What they gonna call the dog?.............

Helen?

[flyjoe180]

;D Here we go...

[corsair67]

or Paris? ;D

[flyjoe180]

Britney?

[fletcherfu24]

The dam is breached,send out the code word......B....for Britney.....repeat....B...for...Britney........nah,its just not the same....