NEW aviation flicks

Oy…helluva line-up on that one…went to the Estes Park Scottish festival today and guess who was there? Randall Wallace of ‘Braveheart’ fame, but ALSO the writer behind that all-time classic aviation movie ‘Pearl Harbor’. Maybe we could get him to do up a script for the above mentioned movie to be…

mark

Hi all

I think one person who doesn’t get much mention here is John Travolta- he is the ultimate in Actor/Aviators and I think he would be great if he got behind a project and made it happen………

Tom Cruze apparently owns a P51D and although I think his acting is crap he would be another drawcard if a good movie came along.

So what we have here is a scenario

Peter Jackson develops a suitable script and John Travolta leads whatever Squadron with Tom Cruze as the reble underling and the mad section leader is played by Mel – Somehow they wind up in Russia helping out the Russian allstar Ace women fighter pilot Squadron led by Dame Judy Dench as the Russian Commander with Cate Blanchet, Miranda Otto (Lord of the rings), Andy McDowell and Reese Witherspoon as the beautiful tough as steel section leaders. The evil Germans are led by whoever ( Kurt Jurgens is dead isnt he?) —–Anyway it needs work but I am sure you will all help me!!!!!

Regards
John P

How about Steven Speilberg and tom hanks getting together and dramatising the book ‘Wild Blue(?)’ by stephen Ambrose who also did ‘Band of Brothers’. if they put as much effort and attention to detail as in Band of Brothers it would be a cracker.

Wild Blue was an awful book. This is where Ambrose really took from other people’s work, in particular a wonderful book written by Thomas Childers called “Wings of Morning” where Childers tracked the story of his Uncle who was killed in a B24 towards the end of the war.

While I really liked Band of Brothers, Wild Blue was a really poor effort by Mr. Ambrose who seemed to be going through the motions on that one, and not very well either.

The Childers book would be interesting however.

Dan

How about Steven Speilberg and tom hanks getting together and dramatising the book ‘Wild Blue(?)’ by stephen Ambrose who also did ‘Band of Brothers’. if they put as much effort and attention to detail as in Band of Brothers it would be a cracker.

This idea surfaces here from time to time.

I suggest you re-read the book.

Not a great deal happens. All the interest is in being inside the heads of the characters and Deighton’s superb writing style.

I’d rather the movie moguls left that one alone.

Moggy

Good point, but the fact it shows both sides of the story gives the basic framework for a quite balanced view, and as with most books the depth is normally left out of the screenplay (witness Piece of Cake and the mostly pathetic attempts at turning Tom Clancy and Stephen King novels into films). If handled well the film could stand as a work in it’s own right so long as it doesn’t pretend to be a faithful adaptation of the novel.

The most we can ever hope for in a film is an accurate and sympathetic portrayal of people and events, with some nice footage of aircraft. Pearl Harbo(u)r was some nice flying spoilt by a story wasn’t it?

JC
Isn’t wine brilliant!!

I wish someone would take a crack at Bert Stiles, “Serenade to the Big Bird”. So much more then a war story. IF and a BIG IF, they could somehow present the human element that Stiles gets across so well, then the airwar stuff around the 17s and Mustangs would be great background.

So much of what he talks about regarding the state of the world at the time, seems awfully relevent today

Dan

Whose the best pilot….

Talking of Flight Of The Phoenix…I think it’s time to metion Denis Quaid. Arguably one of the most underated actors of his generation ! In my opion the star of The Right Stuff. ‘Whose The best pilot you ever saw etc…..’

By the way you probably all know the Quaider is a flyer in real life too…. 🙂

So what would it take to make a film about Bomber Command? Len Deighton’s novel could form the basis for a screenplay.
JC

This idea surfaces here from time to time.

I suggest you re-read the book.

Not a great deal happens. All the interest is in being inside the heads of the characters and Deighton’s superb writing style.

I’d rather the movie moguls left that one alone.

Moggy

Here she is, late 1996, N709RR. Cruddy photo but you get the idea 🙂

A C-123 starred in ConAir as well. Forget the registration but she was stored at Reno-Stead for a while painted in some sort of fictitious US Marshalls scheme.

Indeed Mark, my mistake. I’ve only seen ‘A;ways’ once but I’d love to see it again. I’ve seen ‘Forever Young’ too, and once was enough for me!

I love Air America, some great flying by the OFMC guys. I’d never seen or heard of the C-123 till I saw that film. It is quite an awesome plane, as was the Turbo Porter. The C-123 went on to star in another pretty good film, Operation Dumbo Drop.

‘Always and Forever’? Mixing up the aviation movies a bit, eh wot? ‘Always’, a great movie with good flying and a great cast (funny too) starred Rcihard Dreyfuss and John Goodman and Holly Hunter…’Forever Young’ Starred Mel as a preserved WW2 test pilot who wakes up out of his test chamber modern day but rapidly begins to age again…some good warbird and B-25 flying in it too, if you like a ‘fluff’ movie like that…’Air America’ with Mel and Robert Downey Jr is a classic, I have it here, some GREAT flying in it, it’s what brought the C-123 back to our attention again…

Mark

So what would it take to make a film about Bomber Command? Len Deighton’s novel could form the basis for a screenplay.

There are enough Lancs for ground shots, 2 airworthy ones and CGI for the flying sequences…

Well?? We’ve got movers and shakers lurking in this Forum, so move and shake Ladies and Gentlemen!

JC
Not volunteering

Hi

Forever young – he was GREAT how can you critise such a performance – flying that B25 – It only took him 2 miles to get it to stop. A legend, an ace – my hero

Regards
John P

I really sincerly hope they leave The Dambusters alone.
After the original what more could be done with it?

Yes, the original is very good for its time. Not much could be improved on apart from the addition of colour and the more natural acting techniques and special effects of today. By the latter I refer to the dam models, which do look pretty fake.

Or they could take the story from a whole different angle altogether; as most of the film is about Wallis’s struggle. maybe they could follow a crew (not Gibson’s) through the training and show what happened after they returned and they were branded by the press as heroes.

Perhaps it could begin with a reunion of oldies who are looking back, (maybe they could use the real oldies in a docu-drama style?) There are all sorts of ways of re-doing a film. But I agree, the original is a classic and even if a new one came along it couldn’t diminish the original.

Personally I think a film about Bomber Command should be made, but about a different story. Everyone knows the Dam Buster story, why not tell a story of heroism that no-one knows?

Hang on a minute, wasn’t there a ‘Dambusters sequence’ in Chicken Run, which he of course starred in! Or was that another kid’s film I saw. I know they did a parody of The Great Escape… 🙂

Hogans Heroes and Dambusters isn’t the end of it. I once saw an interview which said he was the new James Bond!!!! 😮

I don’t think he’s a bad actor, but he does have a bad publicist. He has done at least one aviation related film – remember that romantic crap with B25’s in it, was it ‘Always and Forever’ or something like that.

Also
At one stage that NZ/Aussie Icon Mr M Gibson was to make a “Computer enhanced” (Pearl Harbour style aircraft ) version of the Dambusters – anybody know what happened to that?

I really sincerly hope they leave The Dambusters alone.
After the original what more could be done with it?
Also I’m sure Gibson hates the English. Look at Braveheart or that cr*p he made about The War of Independance.
I know how the Yanks on this forum feel when they get a bashing after watching that garbage!
Cheers
Andy

Hi

Yes he does have some nice WW11 stuff

I think this is his as well as a very nice Sopwith with original engine

Regards
John P

I heard YEARS ago Mel was set to star in a new version of ‘Dambusters’, at about the same time I heard he was set to do a movie version of ‘Hogan’s Heroes’, the popular TV sitcom…neither of them turned out to be true regarding him but there was a video movie of ‘Hogan’s Heroes’ done starring Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe…more accurately, it was a mvie allegedly based on the life of Bob Crane, star of the TV series…never saw it tho…

Mark

Hi Dave

Mel made that Air America thing a lot of years back but I share your doubts – he does have a cheqered past of not making films he said he would – The Dambusters thing did get to a fairly advancesd state which is why I would like to know what happened.

If I was a betting man I would say the 75 Sqn pic has a 50/50 chance which is very good considering the state of Aus movies at present so yes I think it could well happen.

I am afraid you can’t escape where Mel was born as I can’t escape his upbringing here ( I met him once before he was famous – his daughter and mine played together at the Royal Easter Show in Sydney where he was exhibiting his cattle. He was OK in those days but a little tough and firm)

Peter Jackson was mentioned in the Newspapers as making the Russian movie whilst I was staying in Christchurch and it was the local paper in April- perhaps you can follow it up

Regards
John