Over three years since Peter Jackson wrapped up his Middle-earth saga with The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies, the director is about to make his return to filmmaking – not with another fantasy epic or splatter-horror, but a documentary. Earlier this year it was reported that Jackson was channelling his passion for the First World War into a feature doc, and now more details about the project have emerged.
The film is confirmed to be titled They Shall Not Grow Old, a title relating to Laurence Binyon’s 1914 poem ‘For The Fallen’, and will have its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on 16 October. Jackson’s strong visual sensibilities will be at work here too, with the director colourising original archive footage and converting it to 3D. A first look image shows the results of Jackson’s work.
“I wanted to reach through the fog of time and pull these men into the modern world, so they can regain their humanity once more — rather than be seen only as Charlie Chaplin-type figures in the vintage archive film,” Jackson says. “By using our computing power to erase the technical limitations of 100 year cinema, we can see and hear the Great War as they experienced it.” This November will mark 100 years since the end of the war.
On the date of the premiere, They Shall Not Grow Old will be simulcast in cinemas across the UK in 2D and 3D screenings.
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