Guy Gibson’s dog could yet keep his racially offensive name in Peter Jackson’s multimillion-dollar remake of The Dam Busters.
Gibson, head of the British mission that destroyed German dams in World War II, had a dog called Nigger, who featured in the 1951 book The Dam Busters and was mentioned twelve times in the 1954 film of the same name.
Sir David Frost, executive producer on the project, told the Daily Mail, “Guy sometimes used to call his dog Nigsy, so I think that’s what we will call it.”
Jackson’s personal assisstant, Matt Dravitzki, told the Dominion Post, “A lot of people have said that the dog’s name was Nigger and, to stay true to the story, you can’t just change it. That name is talked about a lot, but we have not made any decisions yet. The script is still being written and that decision on whether we have Nigger or not will be made closer to the time.”
It is understood that the film will go into production later this year. Jackson has been at Hood Aerodrome in Masterton this week testing new camera technology on a full-scale replica of a Lancaster bomber.
British actor Stephen Fry has written the script and it will be directed by New Zealander Christian Rivers. [flicks]
