Lovable, Epithet-Named Dog Complicates Proposed Peter Jackson Project

With The Lovely Bones rattling around in the can and set for a December release, director Peter Jackson can now start plotting his next steps. His motion-captured self will produce the Spielberg-directed The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn (as far as subtitles go, falling somewhere between "and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "Reign of Buttercup Sprinkles" in its sheer, glitter-encrusted stupidity). As for his next directing project, the Sydney Morning Herald notes he's intent on taking on a remake of The Dam Busters, the 1955 World War II epic about the bombing of Germany's Ruhr dams by a Royal Air Force squadron. They report the director wishes to remain slavishly loyal to the true story of Wing Commander Guy Gibson, right down to the name of his loyal black Lab: Nigger.

From the Herald:

The name was mentioned 12 times in the original, and also featured prominently in the book by Paul Brickhill, published three years earlier, on which the film was based.

Stephen Fry, who has been commissioned to write the new script, was asked to suggest alternative names, but David Frost, the executive producer, was reported to have rejected all the options. He was reported to have said: "Guy sometimes used to call his dog Nigsy, so I think that's what we will call it. Stephen has been coming up with other names but this is the one I want."

Matthew Dravitzki, Jackson's executive assistant, told The Dominion Post in Wellington: "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 decision yet."

It's funny how Hollywood is doomed to repeat itself: This conundrum is eerily similar to the controversy surrounding Bridge Over the River Kwai's Chink the Chimpanzee, which, if we recall correctly, was named for a chunk taken out of its skull by a flying piece of shrapnel, but which David Lean eventually abandoned in favor of the far less contestable "Charlie."

· Give a dog a bad name: a producer's conundrum [smh.com.au]