Tuskegee Airmen to be subject of George Lucas film

I wonder if we’ll get the old “never lost a bomber” chestnut?

I’m a bit annoyed with Lucas already about this. [/QUOTE]

True to Forum form, people getting upset about a film they haven’t seen yet.

“We’re working on techniques which will give us the first true look at the aerial dogfighting of the era.”

What, like the kind of dogfighting that Battle of Britain recreated, ooh, 40 years ago?!

Perhaps the technolgy of film has improved just a bit in 40+ years?
If nothing else…if they use real planes…the cameras, lens, and mounts have improved greatly since then. Maybe the action will be closer, sharper than t he old BoB film.

And I don’t remember reading about the RAF refusing to cover daylight bombing sorties, either!

We’ll need to send Lucas a note the NO WWII film be made without extensive British involvement.
Maybe he could invent UK carriers in the major Pacific battles (Midway, Coral Sea), Lincolns with B-29s over Japan, etc. 😀

The Lucasfilm Ltd. production of Red Tails – a fictional story inspired by the historic and heroic exploits of America’s first all black aerial combat unit – has completed casting and will soon begin principal photography in Europe. Produced by Rick McCallum and Charles Floyd Johnson, directed by Anthony Hemingway (“The Wire,” “Battlestar Galactica”) and written by John Ridley (Three Kings) from a story by executive producer George Lucas, Red Tails will star Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire), Oscar nominee Terrence Howard (Crash), Emmy winner Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”), Nate Parker (The Secret Life of Bees), David Oyelowo (The Last King of Scotland), Tristan Wilds (“The Wire”), Cliff Smith aka Method Man (“The Wire”), Kevin Phillips (Pride), Rick Otto (“The Wire”), Lee Tergesen (Monster), Andre Royo (“Heroes”), Grammy award winner Ne-Yo (Stomp the Yard), Elijah Kelley (Hairspray), Marcus T. Paulk (Take the Lead), Leslie Odom Jr. (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Michael B. Jordan (“The Wire”), Grammy nominated singer Jazmine Sullivan, Edwina Finley (“Law and Order”), Daniela Ruah (Midnight Passion) and Stacie Davis (“The Wire”).

“I’ve been wanting to do ‘Red Tails’ for 20 years, and we’ve finally got the means to showcase the skill of the Tuskegee pilots,” said Lucas. “We’re working on techniques which will give us the first true look at the aerial dogfighting of the era. And our top-notch cast will really make this story special.”

“I’m thrilled to have such a fantastic cast of actors and such a talented director to work with,” said McCallum. “The story of the Tuskegee Airmen represents a milestone in American history, and we’re all proud to be paying tribute to their heroic efforts. That cultural significance is not lost on anyone in this great young cast.”1944. World War II rages and the fate of the free world hangs in the balance. Meanwhile the black pilots of the experimental Tuskegee training program are courageously waging two wars at once – one against enemies overseas, and the other against discrimination within the military and back home.

Racial prejudices have long held ace airman Martin “Easy” Julian (Nate Parker) and his black pilots back at base – leaving them with little to do but further hone their flying skills – while their white counterparts are shipped out to combat after a mere three months of training. Mistakenly deemed inferior and assigned only second-rate planes and missions, the pilots of Tuskegee have mastered the skies with ease but have not been granted the opportunity to truly spread their wings.Until now.As the war in Europe continues to take its dire toll on Allied forces, Pentagon brass has no recourse but to reconsider these under-utilized pilots for combat duty.

Just as the young Tuskegee men are on the brink of being shut down and shipped back home, Col. A.J. Bullard (Terrence Howard) awards them the ultimate chance to prove their mettle high above. Undaunted by the prospect of providing safe escort to bombers in broad daylight – a mission so dangerous that the RAF has refused it and the white fighter groups have sustained substantial losses – Easy’s pilots at last join the fiery aerial fray.

Against all the odds, with something to prove and everything to lose, these intrepid young airmen take to the skies in a heroic endeavor to combat the enemy – and the discrimination that has kept them down for so long.

I’m a bit annoyed with Lucas already about this.

“We’re working on techniques which will give us the first true look at the aerial dogfighting of the era.”

What, like the kind of dogfighting that Battle of Britain recreated, ooh, 40 years ago?!

And I don’t remember reading about the RAF refusing to cover daylight bombing sorties, either!

Not a happy bunny – and the cameras haven’t even started rolling yet….

:mad::mad:

Been a bit of an update on the George Lucas project lately. From Empire Online via AICN.com

‘Mr Beaks’ from AINC has apparantly read the script;

If you’re any kind of STAR WARS fan, the title RED TAILS should mean something to you. Though I can’t seem to nail down the exact date the project was announced (I say 1992, but a couple of reliable Lucas-philes think it might be as old as WILLOW), it was, for many years, one of those “non-prequel” ideas Lucas batted around in interviews just to get our hopes up that he might one day return to big-screen feature filmmaking. Then RADIOLAND MURDERS actually happened (for better or worse), EPISODE I went forward (ditto), and RED TAILS was, over time, downgraded to one of those pet concepts that Lucas would maybe get to once the prequel trilogy was completed.

Some sixteen years later, RED TAILS is finally leaving the hangar.

For those of you not up on your Lucasfilm lore, RED TAILS was always intended to be some kind of history-based tribute to the World War II exploits of the Tuskegee Airmen. But that was the extent of the public’s knowledge about the project. Would it be an epic, three-hour take on the formation, training and deployment of the squadron, or a high-octane homage to the flyboy yarns that inspired the x-wing/tie-fighter battles in STAR WARS? If Lucas had any interest in winning Oscars, the former might’ve been a possibility. But one of the things I’ve always liked about Lucas is that, with very few exceptions (all of them being over twenty years old), he doesn’t go in for prestige. He may feint at making “small independent films like Francis”, but, as CHUD’s Devin Faraci discovered a while back, that’s hardly a priority. Lucas is less an artist than a gearhead. And he’s at his best when crafting stories around young men who dig fast moving vehicles.
Let’s see… fighter pilots are young… planes are fast… Could RED TAILS be George Lucas’s most honest and, dare I say it, heartfelt entertainment since THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK?

If you take John Ridley’s screenplay as the sum total of its aerial action (which is so specific, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was written and pre-vis’d a decade ago by Lucas himself), it absolutely is. The first twenty-one pages reads like STAR WARS in the European Theatre. Starting with a daredevil assault on a German train chugging through the Italian countryside (replete with pilot banter borrowed almost directly from the Death Star trench run), and concluding with a blind landing on a crowded military airfield, you get the feeling that this is Lucas’s attempt to reclaim the modern World War II movie from Spielberg. “Lighten up, Steve! Let’s go back to the days when fighting and dying for your country was fun!” I know that sounds snide, but it’s really a compliment of sorts; despite Ridley’s disappointing reliance on war film cliches (hard to take the “Dead Meat” archetype seriously after HOT SHOTS), RED TAILS is an enthralling read. Most importantly, it’s so unabashedly commercial that I don’t think it would outright kill the possibility of another, more serious Tuskegee Airmen film getting made somewhere down the road.

Flipping through RED TAILS, I was reminded that there is a place for corny war films with stock characters – and it’s not just the 1940s and 50s. And since the brave African-American pilots who served the United States so brilliantly never got their FLYING LEATHERNECKS, there’s no harm in honoring them with an escapist entertainment. The question is whether audiences have a taste for that kind of thing in the wake of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (one might even reach back to PLATOON*) and the difficult occupation of Iraq. It’s impossible to dodge the grim realities of warfare anymore, so a glossy, not-too-bloody throwback may not be as welcome as it might’ve been when Lucas first started developing the script.
It may be a tough climate for patriotic war films, but RED TAILS is so defiantly out of time, I don’t think it’s going to matter – especially when you factor in the artificiality of the endeavor. Though Lucas hasn’t discussed in any great detail how he plans to shoot the movie (with director Anthony Hemingway tending to those icky “actors”), he’ll certainly entrust the elaborate combat sequences to the the best of the best at ILM (given the emphasis on action at the expense of character development, I wouldn’t be surprised if he opts for IMAX 3-D). Will this overwhelm the human element? Possibly. But, like I said, the humans are little more than instantly identifiable archetypes you either cheer or hiss.

What is a little strange is that RED TAILS is mostly an ensemble piece. If there’s anything close to a protagonist, it’s Marty Julian aka “Easy”. He’s the steady, fiercely loyal flight leader who disobeys orders in the opening sequence by talking his blinded pal, Ray “Ray Gun” Knight, through a rough landing. We get the sense early on from a post-assault briefing – in which the pilots watch film captured from the cameras mounted in the planes – that Easy and his fellow airmen are top-notch and combat-ready; unfortunately, as we learn in the next scene, the top brass at the Pentagon is unconvinced that this “colored experiment” is working. Do “negro” pilots possess the requisite degree of skill and intellect? Are they too wild or, worse, cowardly? There is, of course, plenty of racism to overcome, but, due to the outfit’s lack of meaningful missions, there also aren’t many statistics to counter these unreasonable assertions. As a result, the Tuskegee program is on the verge of being shut down.

While the Pentagon considers the fate of the fighter group, their leader, Colonel A.J. Bullard, wrangles a fairly significant “air cover” errand for his men. When they outperform expectations (racking up four kills and no losses), Bullard is offered a serious but potentially deadly mission: escorting American bombers as they conduct raids over German targets in broad daylight. Losses have been so severe for the Air Force in these operations that they’re willing to try anything. And the fact is that no one will ever know whether these Tuskegee pilots are prone to breaking formation and acting like children in the heat of battle until they’re actually thrust into the heat of battle.

The historical record tells you how this all plays out, but, as always, there should be excitement and suspense in the re-telling as you wonder who’ll make it out of these perilous missions alive. This is where RED TAILS might disappoint those hoping for a more modern World War II film instead of, say, TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH: aside from the racial element (which is cliched in its own way), you’ve seen this movie before; you know who lives and who dies from the moment they’re introduced. That said, you’ve also loved this movie before, so while you might roll your eyes at the trite dialogue or wince at the obligatory dust-up between the airmen and a group of racist American soldiers (which, amusingly, is preceded by a quick high school history lesson on W.E.B. Du Bois vs. Booker T. Washington), there can still be something exhilarating about this type of war film.

Rounding up an appealing company of actors will obviously help in putting this material over (and I think Hemingway is probably a good choice as director, given his TV work on high-end ensemble shows like THE WIRE and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA), but the make-or-break will be the aerial acrobatics of the Tuskegee airmen in their trusty P-51 Mustangs. As I mentioned before, the combat sequences are written with such precision, it’s like having the storyboards right in front of you. Lucas’s vision couldn’t be any clearer. And while the action predictably builds in scale as the story progresses, it’s hard to not get worked up over the grand finale: a massive bombing raid on Berlin that pits the airmen against a swarming fleet of the Third Reich’s finest fighter pilots (led by an ace called the “White Baron”).

As Lucas proved with the chaotic opening battle that kicks off REVENGE OF THE SITH, he still knows how to stage and edit combat. The trick, however, is imbuing the CG mayhem with tangible, flesh-and-blood danger; otherwise, it’s just a $200 million video game demo. Though the overwhelming enormity of an IMAX screen could assist in immersing the audience in Lucas’s fabricated environment, the onus will mostly fall on the actors, who’ll have to invest Ridley’s shopworn dialogue with conviction and charisma (ordinarily, I’d be hoping for a polish of some sort, but even the unseen hand of Tom Stoppard couldn’t bring poetry to the final installment of the STAR WARS prequels). That’s a tall order, but if the actors commit to the material, anything’s possible. As of last Friday (2/27), offers are reportedly out to Terrence Howard, Andre Royo (Bubs!), Nate Parker (who should be on the verge of stardom after his excellent performance in THE GREAT DEBATERS), David Oyelowo (Dr. Junju in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND), R&B star Ne-Yo, Bryan Cranston (currently earning accolades for his work on BREAKING BAD) and Barry Pepper.

RED TAILS may occasionally feel like an educational tool, but it’s mostly just an old-fashioned 1950s war movie honoring real-life heroism, and I can’t knock it for that. Best of all for Lucas, it’s not the continuation of an old, wheezing franchise. Unburdened by the crushing expectations of the prequels or INDY 4 (and I’m so going to regret saying this), there’s a very good chance RED TAILS could be perceived as a return to form when it hits theaters in 2010.

re

Laurence Fishburne was superb in the original movie.

Please dont let it be some arrogant rapper like 50 cent or Snoop Dog in a new movie.

Chris Rock would be the right age, and a brilliant performer.

I could get real exited about the film IF they use real planes (not CGI). Nothing (except money and Lucas doesn’t have much excuse there…) is stopping Lucas from having P-51s escort B-24s.

I’m sure Collings, CAF and Weeks could put theirs into the air along with as many razorback Mustangs as possible (again Weeks).

Theres only one man for the starring role, Will Smith, how could you forget him, he could introduce a bit of rapping too.

Now, this is a story all about how
my ‘stang got bounced and then shot down
And i’d like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I’ll tell you how I became the prince of Stalag Luft 3

…I didn’t think that any TG airmen were shot down in combat…

I don’t know about fighter escort missions, but Tuskegee Airman Alexander Jefferson was shot down while flying ground support. He writes about his experiences as a POW in his book “Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free,” It’s a fascinating read, with wonderful hand-drawn illustrations.

Harald

Actually, Will Smith wouldn’t be a bad idea, as he’s shown considerable dramatic flair in recent years, especially in I Am Legend, The Pursuit of Happyness and Ali.

He’s maybe a bit too old for the part, however, as he’s not far off 40…:o

Yeah, but I think that most people still think of him as a yoof, and seriously, I’m not knocking him, I really like the bloke, I thought he was excellent in Legend, he’s the man for me, a bit of pancake and off we go, I reckon he would love a role in that film, as long as he was able to have that last cigar, not that he would need it, I didn’t think that any TG airmen were shot down in combat. By the way, do P-51’s have lighters, just in case.

Theres only one man for the starring role, Will Smith, how could you forget him, he could introduce a bit of rapping too.
I can see it now, following a low level chase through the Italian Alps, Will shoots down Bf109 and lands his P-51 next to him on a glacier.
Dragging the dazed Luftwaffe pilot out of the wreckage, Major Smith knocks him out with the immortal lines,’Welcome to Earth’.
He then wraps him in a parachute and drags him through the snow to the nearest POW camp, could be a good film.

Actually, Will Smith wouldn’t be a bad idea, as he’s shown considerable dramatic flair in recent years, especially in I Am Legend, The Pursuit of Happyness and Ali.

He’s maybe a bit too old for the part, however, as he’s not far off 40…:o

Bigger stars? Apart from perhaps Denzel Washington who’s way too old, could you get bigger black American stars than Laurence Fishburne, Courtney Vance, or Cuba Gooding Junior? Even Malcolm Jamal Warner was excellent in the film and I usually hate his work. And as for supporting cast, John Lithgow is pretty big too

Theres only one man for the starring role, Will Smith, how could you forget him, he could introduce a bit of rapping too.
I can see it now, following a low level chase through the Italian Alps, Will shoots down Bf109 and lands his P-51 next to him on a glacier.
Dragging the dazed Luftwaffe pilot out of the wreckage, Major Smith knocks him out with the immortal lines,’Welcome to Earth’.
He then wraps him in a parachute and drags him through the snow to the nearest POW camp, could be a good film.

Since the Tuskegee Airman film is fairly new and an excellent film well worth watching, I wonder how Lucas’ film will be different?

I liked the film too, but don’t know much about the real story behind it. There are a lot of people on a WIX thread about this same subject who’d disagree with it being excellent and some say there’s just too much made up for Hollywood. Lucas has made similar remarks apparently and plans to make it more accurate.

Bigger budget, bigger stars, more CGI?

Bigger stars? Apart from perhaps Denzel Washington who’s way too old, could you get bigger black American stars than Laurence Fishburne, Courtney Vance, or Cuba Gooding Junior? Even Malcolm Jamal Warner was excellent in the film and I usually hate his work. And as for supporting cast, John Lithgow is pretty big too.

I saw Speilberg on TV the other day talking about Saving Private Ryan and he said it was to honor his dad and the other WWII vets. But his dad asked when he’d make a film about his B-24 unit in the Pacific…or the guys flying the “Hump”.
I’d like to see those.
Good to know Speilberg knows that those stories are waiting to be told.

I hope his Dad insists on a Pacific aviation film. I’m really looking forward to his currently-being-made mini series The Pacific. I hope there might be some aviation in that, even if fleeting glimpse.

As for CGI aircraft, sure real ones would be preferable but perhaps these days they might be able to make them better than ever before. Look at the aircraft in King Kong a couple of years ago, I thought they were pretty superb, as was the entire cgi in that film. By now Lucas should have caught up to, if not overtaken that technology. And Dambusters will have CGI too, which will look better than the models used in the original I’m certain.

To be honest, I really enjoyed the HBO film, despite its budget constraints (how many cut scenes from Battle of Britain were there?!).

It was an ambitious attempt to tell the story that, hitherto, very few of us had probably ever heard about.

Just a pity it’s not available on R2 DVD as far as I know….

Not sure if its appropriate to mention it in this forum, but i recently noted this movie on “The P*****bay”.

But its also on amazon.co.uk as an R2 DVD.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tuskegee-Airmen-Laurence-Fishburne/dp/B0010VXMV2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1213854369&sr=8-3

Lee Archer i think-he’s been to Duxford, anyway!

To be honest, I really enjoyed the HBO film, despite its budget constraints (how many cut scenes from Battle of Britain were there?!).

It was an ambitious attempt to tell the story that, hitherto, very few of us had probably ever heard about.

Just a pity it’s not available on R2 DVD as far as I know….

The original “Tuskegee Airman” film was quite good but suffered from a lack of spectacle. Only a few aircraft were used in the making of the film and there were numerous inaccuracies due to the low budget e.g. the unit’s use of P-40s and P-39s was not shown. As I recall we saw them flying P-51Ds in North Africa!

Hopefully a new film would correct these inaccuracies and would show large numbers of planes thanks to CG!.

Colin

i once met a tuskegee airman and his wife who’s also a pilot, i cant remember their names, ill have a dig for them later, but they told of stories from the war, the guy i met actually was one of the first tuskegee airmen to serve, met him at a festival of flight event in newcastle several years ago, i believe his wife was called mildred, could be wrong though

im am pleased to of met him as accompanied by him was a BoB veteran who also told of his stories, he even went through a general weeks work flying the spitfire, Scramble!! dog fight, back for lunch and Scrambled again, obviously in more detail but just for a rough idea

An acquaintance owns (and I’ve flown in) one of the two flying T-6s used at Tuskegee for training.
He bought it as a regualr T-6, once he learned of its history from USAF records, he back dated his G (visually only, he left the improved G systems in it) into a D and put on the proper markings.

It would be nice if that plane were used.

Since the Tuskegee Airman film is fairly new and an excellent film well worth watching, I wonder how Lucas’ film will be different? Bigger budget, bigger stars, more CGI? It might be worthwhile if Lucas does it first rate…(from our perspective with LOTS of planes), otherwise, why bother with a remake?
Not taking anything away from the Tuskegee airmen, but if Lucas wants to make a WWII aviation film, I’d politely remind him there are other stories out there.

I saw Speilberg on TV the other day talking about Saving Private Ryan and he said it was to honor his dad and the other WWII vets. But his dad asked when he’d make a film about his B-24 unit in the Pacific…or the guys flying the “Hump”.
I’d like to see those.
Good to know Speilberg knows that those stories are waiting to be told.

Lucas is insane about CGI, thats what ruined the Star Wars prequels.

Amen to that, brother!

Perhaps he will borrow P-51 ‘Jumpin Jaques’, I believe it’s the only genuine combat proven Tuskagee Mustang still flying.

How many films have been made featuring the original aircraft from the actual battles pictured, I can only think of our BBMF Mk2 Spitfire in ‘BoB’, and in some ways ‘Pink Lady’ in ‘Memphis Belle’, though maybe some of those B-25’s in ‘Catch 22’ had been down that road before, anyone wish to comment.

Thinking about it, if he’s considering filming in Italy, he may well be tempted to amass several European warbirds, B-17’s, B-25’s, P-51’s and the mouth watering thought of some of those Bf 109’s in Germany, maybe with the odd Flugwerke 190 thrown in.
C’mon George, you’ve got the money and your reputation will automatically draw the backing, get rid of the CGI and do it properly.