Eighth Air Force mini-series in development at HBO

[p51]

why not use extras who actually know the background story intimately and can accurately portray the crews?

Well, many (some might say most) AAF re-enactors aren't in their 20s and are also a little large to play the part. And a lot of them like having big moustaches for some reason. If I were a director, I'd go with actors I can pick and choose that look the part more. You could go with re-enactors to play the ground crews in many cases, though.
And I can say this because I was a AAF re-enactor for many years and still have all my stuff. Take a good look at this photo I'm in (front row, far right, kneeling), which shows a good general look at the types of people you find in AAF re-enacting.

If I were a director, I wouldn't use but maybe 2-3 of the people in this photo at the most. I think that "Red Tails" has finally proven that you can make a movie with all the right-looking stuff if you hire the right person to take care of the costumes and props...

[groundpounder]

I really have a hard time getting on board with the whole re-enactor thing. Middle aged men,especially when overweight and not at all looking the part, trying to imitate young boys is just plain wrong. If some cadets or new recruits wanted to do it that's one thing but these old guys make themselves look pathetic in my opinion. And we all know what opinions are all about.

On a brighter note, i think that Hanks and Spielberg are going to do a terrific job on this ! BOB and The Pacific were both great,so i dont see any reason to think that this would be any different. In fact, they have the benefit of lessons learned from the first two series to guide them along the way. The pacific had plenty of CGI in it and for the most part was done very well. I recently watched an independent movie release called "Fortress" and although it left something to be desired in many different ways it was actually pretty good all things considered. Some of the CGI was not so great, but some of it was fantastic!! I think yhat this is going to be a winner and i am looking forward to its development and release.

[JohnB]

I hope at his age he's grown past thinking it was all about colorful nose art, gorgeous flight jackets, and sexy, shiny fast airplanes.

Why should we expect him to when most of us haven't?


Seriously, if left to his own devices, he probably could screw it up (witness the last Indiana Jones film) with the HBO series he's just the Executive Producer, I suspect his job is to put his name on the series and cash checks.

Let's be optomistic until proven otherwise.

As I said about Pearl Harbor, anything that helps tech young people about WWII aviation can't be all bad.

As far as reenactors go, there are some good ones out there. In 2010 I was in Albert Lee, Minnesota refueling during a cross country drive and there were 2-3 young guys in great WWII army field uniforms. They were the right age, right size (less than 6 foot tall), properly thin with the correct haircuts. They were enroute to a county museum somewhere.
I I'd myself as aWWII avaition fan and said I'd seem a lot of reenactors, but they were the best I'd seen. Nice kids.

Last edited by JohnB on Wed Jan 23, 2013 1:58 pm, edited 3 times in total.

[leo]

I was pleasantly surprised by "Fortress". Like most movies of it's type I had to dial back the rivet counter mode a bit but it was not bad.
BOB was great, I got Pacific for Xmas and have yet to watch it, missed most of it when it was on HBO and only saw disjointed pieces.
All we see of the air war is documentaries (limited audience) and hollywood spectaculars that feel a need to get popular story in them to sell. Would be nice to see this handled the way the other mini-series have been.
I've also thought it would make a great subject for a filmaker like Ken Burns. "Civil War" air force style.