Warbird Information Exchange

I caught this announcement on Reuters today that producer Graham King ("Traffic," "The Aviator", "Blood Diamond") is developing a new movie about the Battle of Britain with a script by Oscar-winning ("Chinatown") screenwriter Robert Towne. Graham says he was inspired by listening to his father describe watching British and German planes dueling over London in late 1940.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/04/idUS18107329920111004

Hope they find enough HE-111s and the sort to make it, because otherwise, I'm not interested in watching a mostly CGI movie.

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"According to the map, we've only gone 4 inches."

Outstanding.

Now if they can just get John Cleese and Eric Idle to write the pilot's banter it will be all tiddly hogs and bubble dances.

SPANNER

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Support Your Local Warbirds! KBO!
The only reasons the airplanes matter is what the veterans did with them... and why.

Sounds interesting, but I can't see it being as good as the original. Pearl Harbor was nowhere as good as Tora! Tora! Tora!


Chappie

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Brrring. Dispersal? TWO SECTIONS SCRAMBLE!!

I'm excited about the idea of a new Battle of Britain movie!

That being said, I am concerned about too much CGI. I am also worried that the film will move away from being about the war, and make it almost entirely about some cr*p story about an unfactual love triangle between the main "ficticious" characters with the battle being merely a backdrop to the typical Hollywood drivel that we're used to. This MUST NOT be another Pearl Harbor.

Wow, I sound like pessimist.

We certainly have enough Spitfires and Hurricanes, and now there's a fairly decent amount of Me/Bf-109's to make a really good film. The only question mark would be the He-111's, and other rare German types like the Ju-87's and Ju-88's. Perhaps some He-111's could be coaxed out of dusty retirement.

Then again, CGI seems to be preferred by studios for being 'cheaper.' The only rational that I'll agree with is that it'll prevent any damage from happening to any of the airplanes. CGI is getting pretty good, so we'll see.

Lastly, I'd just like to suggest that this movie keeps what the original movie had which made it so good: The story from both sides. I truly enjoyed the original Battle of Britain movie because it included the other side. The Luftwaffe. As we all know about wars... is that it's our boys versus their boys. They're just boys, and just because they fly for another country doesn't mean their struggles and achievements should be viewed any differently. Plus, it's so far back in our history that there's no need for it to be a ra-ra-ra patriotic film.

Ok, this is the real lastly. May I suggest, that instead of a movie, that a "Band of Brothers" type mini-series be created about the Battle of Britain. I think if it were to follow the stories of one, two, or three notable RAF squadrons, that they'd have some very incredible material. And like Band of Brothers, they would have no problem illustrating the fact that so many pilots were killed, and that it didn't matter if you were a main character or someone in the background, your odds of survival were the same as the guy next to you. Plus, I think it would satisfy us warbird nuts/nerds to see a mini-series done in that fashion. It would definitely be in my DVD collection.

Peace,

David M

In my best Alistair Cooke/Masterpiece Theater voice........."Wasn't it called Piece of Cake?"

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Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline......

Wow, I've gotta track down the DVD's of "Piece of Cake." I just found it on IMDB and it sounds really good.


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157239/

Peace,

David M

It was a BBC mini-series that I can remember being broadcast on PBS as part of Masterpiece Theater back when I was in college. I'm sure that it can be picked apart by those who are wont to do such things, but I remember liking it. Haven't seen it in years.

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Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline......

Piece of Cake was a good one from the episodes that I did watch.

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"According to the map, we've only gone 4 inches."

And the book was even better, although it was a Hurricane squadron, not Spitfires.

greg v.

Then I'm pretty sure you won't be interested in watching this one. There's no way anyone's going to be able to recreate the scenes with actual a/c. That many Hurricanes, Spitfires and 109s in the air at once. I don't think so. Not to mention He-111s, Ju-87s, and Ju-88s of which I don't think there are any left in flying condition.

Mudge the realist

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Land of the free because of the brave

Yep, Mudge is right; CGI is the way for a flying pic to get made, these days. (Revives my ongoing fantasy about a flick about the '49 NAR...)

But yes, do yourself a favour and track down Piece Of Cake on DVD. The first episode, in particular, has some of the finest Spitfire footage ever filmed; and a later segment features what today would be a CGI Spit flashing past underneath a huge stone bridge...but which in 1989, when the series was filmed, was done with Ray Hanna, MH434 and an actual bridge...

By the way, a short sequence for the series was filmed in Texas, using the CAF's Spitfire and CASA 2-111. The Spit was still in the film paint the next year when she dinged her prop at Mt.Hope during the Hamilton airshow; she never flew again, being lost in the Hangar 3 fire on February 15, 1993. (She'd been stripped for repainting by then...was going to be operated alongside CWH's Hurricane and Lancaster on a cooperative basis with the CAF. The Hurricane was lost in the fire also and the "Canadian Memorial Flight" idea progressed no further.)

S.

There was also a static albeit disassembled CASA 2.111 used as set dressing. It represented the aforementioned Heinkel that was shot down, and the scene revolved around the squadron driving out to pick up souveneir from their kill. "How about a swastika?"

What ever became of this airframe?

Pete

"Piece of Cake" was not made by the BBC, it was made by the equally good but now defunct London Weekend Television, part of ITV. It is primarily about the Battle of France, with the last couple of episodes moving on to the Battle of Britain.

Davey if you are to buy the DVD set, try to get the UK release. It was previously released in Canada first, but the quality is reportedly nowhere near as good as the restored UK release. I have the Canadian set and it's still watchable but has that home video feel, whereas the later release is much sharper and more like DVD quailty.

I guess in terms of the Luftwaffe bombers the film makers can take out-takes from Battle of Britain (1969) but use CGI to enhance them, adding in different backgrounds and tracer and the likes, as was done in Dark Blue World, to make it look a bit different from the original film.

There are now plenty of Spitfire V's and even a couple of flyable Mk I's and a II flying now and loads of Hurricanes airworthy, so if they have a big budget they can achieve a reasonable amount, if even just for the ground shots.

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There were not any "real" Ju.87s or 88s in the original Battle of Britain movie.

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Kevin McCartney