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This image released by Warner Bros. Entertainment shows a scene from the WWI documentary "They Shall Not Grow Old," directed by Peter Jackson. Jackson drew on all the technical know-how of his big-budget spectacles to turn hundreds of hours of footage from the Western Front and audio of surviving soldiers into a seamless, unobstructed portrait of the war as seen from the British trenches. Jackson altered frame rates, colorized and turned 3-D the footage, even employing lip readers to capture dialogue. (Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP)

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This image released by Warner Bros. Entertainment shows a scene from the WWI documentary "They Shall Not Grow Old," directed by Peter Jackson. Jackson drew on all the technical know-how of his big-budget spectacles to turn hundreds of hours of footage from the Western Front and audio of surviving soldiers into a seamless, unobstructed portrait of the war as seen from the British trenches. Jackson altered frame rates, colorized and turned 3-D the footage, even employing lip readers to capture dialogue. (Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP)

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This image released by Warner Bros. Entertainment shows a scene from the WWI documentary "They Shall Not Grow Old," directed by Peter Jackson. Jackson drew on all the technical know-how of his big-budget spectacles to turn hundreds of hours of footage from the Western Front and audio of surviving soldiers into a seamless, unobstructed portrait of the war as seen from the British trenches. Jackson altered frame rates, colorized and turned 3-D the footage, even employing lip readers to capture dialogue. (Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP)

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This image released by Warner Bros. Entertainment shows a scene from the WWI documentary "They Shall Not Grow Old," directed by Peter Jackson. Jackson drew on all the technical know-how of his big-budget spectacles to turn hundreds of hours of footage from the Western Front and audio of surviving soldiers into a seamless, unobstructed portrait of the war as seen from the British trenches. Jackson altered frame rates, colorized and turned 3-D the footage, even employing lip readers to capture dialogue. (Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP)

With blockbuster effects, Peter Jackson brings WWI to life

By Associated Press New York State

PUBLISHED 2:21 PM ET May. 09, 2019

NEW YORK (AP) — Peter Jackson has used digital wizardry to conjure J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth and King Kong's New York, but he has now employed all his technical powers to bring to life the Western Front of the First World War.

Jackson's "They Shall Not Grow Old" is the 57-year-old filmmaker's first documentary. It was commissioned by Britain's Imperial War Museum to coincide with the centenary of the Armistice. Jackson assembled the film by using more than 100 hours of footage from the front and 600 hours of audio interviews conducted in the 1960s with surviving British soldiers.

Jackson restored the heavily damaged, grainy footage, colorized it and transferred the film into 3-D. He even employed expert lip readers to recreate the unheard dialogue.

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