Replica plane built for Jackson's Dambusters

Peter Jackson has already had replicas built of the bomber and bomb used in the Dambuster World War 2 mission, for his upcoming movie of the same name.

Jackson told the movie website Ain't it Cool that he and his team travelled to England in May where they measured the original bombs and Wellington's Weta Workshop had just finished making a replica.

Richard Taylor had the first of 10 full-sized Lancaster bombers and had stored it at Weta Workshop.

"We're about to start building the mechanism to spin the bomb under the plane now," Jackson said.

The movie is based on a heroic and daring mission in World War 2 when Royal Air Force bombers destroyed German dams using bouncing bombs.

Jackson said the difficult part was to find accurate specifications, because the original designers modified the planes to be able to carry the bombs under their bellies before their release.

"There are two or three photos that exist of the original, but the British never really kept accurate records of it because it was so secret."

It was ironic, Jackson said, that the best information they had about the bomb was from the Germans who had one after it did not explode when a plane was shot down.

"The Germans dismantled it, they drew it, they measured it, they did blueprints of it, which are accessible today."

Now Weta was working on the miniature dams and it was hoped to start shooting some of the miniatures in the next few weeks.

"This is shooting bits of the movie before we've even written a script for it or even thought about a cast for it. It's an interesting way of making a film."

Jackson said he still had not decided what to call Dambusters Squadron Leader Guy Gibson's dog - originally called Nigger.

"It's a situation where you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

"If we go one way people are going to say we sold out to political correctness. If you go the other way you're obviously going to be inadvertently offending people. So it's a no-win scenario."

Jackson said the decision was complicated because it was not just the name of the dog - Nigger was also used as the code word for when they breached the dam.

There were no thoughts yet of who to cast in the main roles, but Jackson said he wanted them to be the right age.

"A couple of the key pilots that night were 20 years old."

He said Guy Gibson was 25 years old during the campaign and commanding 20-year-old pilots.

"I find that remarkable, I just think back to what I was like when I was 20 and I couldn't imagine myself doing what they were doing."

- NZPA