“The Lord of the Rings” director is making a new feature documentary about World War I to mark the centennial of the war’s end, mining the archives of the BBC and London’s Imperial War Museum for material. The as-yet-unnamed project will have a U.K.-wide release as part of the BFI London Film Festival in the fall.

The historical footage, much of which will not have been seen before, has been restored and hand-colorized. Jackson said the film will bring to life the real stories of people who lived through the 1914-18 conflict, which was billed as the “war to end all wars.”

The 2D and 3D film is part of the official program of cultural events marking the centenary of the armistice, organized under the banner “14-18 NOW” and supported by British lottery funding, the Arts Council, and government’s department of culture.

Events specialist Trafalgar Releasing will coordinate a U.K.-wide release of Jackson’s film to coincide with the LFF premiere. The film is being produced by the director’s WingNut Films shingle. He unveiled the project at BAFTA in London on Monday at an event also attended by BBC Director General Tony Hall.

He said the Imperial War Museum approached him a couple of years ago to see what could be done with their archive footage and how it could be presented in a way not done before.

“We’re making a film [that is] not the usual film you would expect on the First World War. We’re making a film that shows this incredible footage in which the faces of the men just jump out at you,” Jackson said. “It’s the people that come to life in this film.”

The producers sifted through hundreds of hours of interviews with veterans in order to focus on the personal experiences of the people involved. “We have made a movie which shows the experience of what it was like to fight in this war, not strategy [or] battles,” said Jackson, who discusses the film in the video below.

A copy of the film will also be given to every secondary school in Britain, with a key aim of the project to help younger generations understand the events of a century ago. BBC content chief Charlotte Moore said it would “bring unheard voices from a hundred years ago to life for a whole new generation to experience.”

http://variety.com/2018/tv/news/peter-j ... 202670953/

Neat

Much of the IWM footage has already been showcased in the excellent The Great War channel on YT, which produces weekly content that follows the war as it occurred a hundred years ago. Highly recommended.

Still waiting for my Fincher WW1 movie though.

“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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6Do1p1 ... e=youtu.be

It's good but I'm far more mixed on it than most. The whole tech stuff while a big achievement make it gimmicky and a one time curiosity....I think Jackson should have handed over his colour footage to someone like Brett Morgen who managed to do wonders with Jane which is based on a similar archive only conceit. Just needed that extra step that a prolific documentary filmmaker could provide. Although it's still an important watch and I recognise how it's a personal passion project for PJ, just that it feels more like a glorified showcase of what they achieved with the tech than anything else - to me anyway.

Currently 92/100 on metascore.

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/they-s ... c-reviews

First PJ film to recieve glowing reviews since King Kong.£

I really want to see this, but it isn't showing anywhere