Lucas to make Red Tails Movie

[kjones40]

X-wings, Y-wings now P-51s !!

Check out the link.
http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1497599/03012005/story.jhtml

[TimAPNY]

Lets hope for the best.

The story has been told, how about something new.

[Scott Rose]

Thats a bit surprising. Tuskegee Airman is an excellent, if limited, movie and relatively recent as well. If this project continues how much do you wanna bet the new Me 262 will have a scene? Since the red tails shot at least one down.

[Dan K]

There's still one movie that begs to be made:

Ploesti: August 1, 1943

Read Dugan's book...then you'll understand.

[corsair166b]

I'd like to see something on Kenney's 5th air force in the pacific....ya know, skip bombing, parafrags, cannons in B-25's....it screams to be a movie, and with no lack of B-25's? Who wants to start the script?

Mark

[airnutz]

...or the exploits of the PBY Black Cats...

http://www.daveswarbirds.com/blackcat

Squadron logos...
http://www.daveswarbirds.com/blackcat/logos.htm

When we suggest these movies, I half-hope they don't get done because
I cringe at the thought of another "5 fingered gagger" like "U-571"! But
then one hopes for the excellence of "Das Boot"!! Roll the dice..at least
aircrews/owners will get much needed money for warbird participation.
The short scenes in U-571 with the black Fiat G-59 was its only
redemption....

[helinut]

Or how about the story of thr RCAF,s 162 Sqn, Flew PBY-5A,s VC winner, sunk about 5 U-boats lost at least 3 aircraft all in about 4 months , and I know one of the DFC winners is still alive.

[Rob Mears]

I never figured Lucas would go for rehashing a somewhat recently produced topic. There are literally dozens of excellent aviation themes from WWII that could be exploited. I hate to see the chance passed over to indulge in a fresh story that might otherwise never be told.

[Dennis7423]

Guys-

What about a movie about the 100th BG? That way, we can get the 262's in there, some 109's, and possibly some of the Flug Werks 190's...i'd love to see another movie about Forts! Memphis Belle was alright, but the fact that the entire story was false as per the Belle's final mission kinda put a funky twist on it. Or, better yet (i'm biased) a movie about the 96th! They did suffer the most losses of any 8th Air Force Squadron during WWII. I'm fortunate to have a Grandfather who survived 35 missions with the 96th and is able to share their stories with me. What do you guys think? A decent B-17 movie?

-Dennis S.
Greeley, CO

[airnutz]

Very true Dennis...what gripes me is when Hollyweird goes completely
outside of history in order to "tart-up" the stories, when in real combat
things occurred which would be totally unbelievable in any other instance.

How bout the instance of a B-17 mission...where they are amidst
"heavy flak" and they've just dumped their load. A piece of shrapnel
enters the cockpit..the pilot reaches down and reads a serial# from the
piece and it is one # short of the last four of his service number! He
reads the number and replies, "Let's get the H*ll outta here, the next
one's got my number on it"!!

Or the story of the B-17 which loses the rear empennage with the tail
gunner in it. He can't bail out and rides it down. It flutters into trees and he emerges unscathed. Hollywood wouldn't have to come up with goofy
stories, plotlines and instances if only they would "listen to the history"!

[Waltz41]

I'm psyched, hopefully it won't be 'hollywood-ized' that much...but the fact that a WW2 aviation themed movie is being produced is great IMO. Interesting to see in the next couple of years, all the WW2 related movies and stuff coming out, Eastwood's Flag of our Fathers, Band of Brothers Pacific series, The Great Raid (Ghost Soldiers) and other possibilities of The Few with Tom Cruise, an African-American Tanker movie with Morgan Freeman, and then this one. Let's keep our fingers crossed that they do history right!

Brian

The "Tuskeegee Airmen" was a good movie, but it wasn't a GREAT movie, and that story deserves to be made into a great movie. I just hope they stay away from the CGA airplanes. They look so fake - even in the new Howard Hughes movie. There's lots of great story ideas out there, but that one deserves a better job done of it.

[John Beyl]

"Or the story of the B-17 which loses the rear empennage with the tail
gunner in it. He can't bail out and rides it down. It flutters into trees and he emerges unscathed. Hollywood wouldn't have to come up with goofy
stories, plotlines and instances if only they would "listen to the history"

I wouldn't be so quick to poo poo that "Story"....I met the survivor of that incident several years ago at Planes of Fame East.

John

[Tony]

Goodbye Mickey Mouse. Is it Lucas, Speilberg or Tom Cruise that holds the option?

[Steve T]

Hi all--

Well now this is a surprise. Not that Lucas is doing "Red Tails"...but that Lucas is STILL doing the project! I had always thought that story deserved to be filmed; was just thrilled to hear that Lucas of "Star Wars" fame was planning such a film...in 1989. Circa 1990 I saw part of a TV press conference about "Red Tails" with Lucas and a screenplay writer. Bit later came a brief blurp in a newspaper about (supposedly) the codename of the then-new Star Wars prequel..."Red Tails". After that, nothing; then all of a sudden came the 1995 HBO cable-TV film "The Tuskegee Airmen", which I assumed had been the Lucas project, passed on to someone else. Despite some irksome hiccups, the HBO flick was quite good, better than many theatrical releases in the genre. Lucas' version should be better. I'll be quite interested to see how close Lucas comes to "my" ideas of how to film this story back in the 80s! (The HBO film wasn't that close).

This is one of my favourite topics (can ya tell?)...Re a Fifth AF B-25 strafer flick, all anybody needs to do is option the Martin Caidin war novel "Whip", with its "335th BG" (ie. 345th BG "Air Apaches") busting up shipping and airfields in the SWPA, and a terrific "cast"...you wouldn't even need to change the title.

Nobody's mentioned air racing yet, so I'll do so yet again...how about filming an account of the dramatic '49 NAR?

Steve