Lord of the Rings film-maker Peter Jackson has signed to produce a remake of classic British war film The Dam Busters. Christian Rivers, who animated Jackson's last project King Kong, will direct the film which the Oscar winner insists will be "as authentic as possible and as close to the spirit of the original as possible". The 1954 movie told the true story of bouncing bombs that were developed by the British army to destroy German dams during World War II. It starred Michael Redgrave. Jackson, who enquired about the rights to the story when he was making initial plans for his Lord of the Rings movies, could only make the film after Mel Gibson's Icon production company pulled out. He tells film website ScreenDaily, "(My agent) came back and said that Icon had the rights and that Mel Gibson was going to direct and possibly act in it. Obviously that didn't happen." He adds the new film, which will shoot next year with a $30-40 million budget, will reveal much more about the missions than the original. Jackson says, "So much of it was still secret. They weren't even allowed to show the bomb itself and had to create a fictionalized bomb."