Ideas for a new WWII air war movie

Dennis7423 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:28 am

Guys-

I would love to see a movie about the 100th BG, or even the 96th BG. Sure, you'll have to use some CGI to show all those destroyed bombers to make it dramatic, but I think if done right, along the lines of Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers, will really give the audience an appreciation for how horrific the air war over Europe was. My 2 Cents!

-Dennis S.
Greeley, CO

Ontario-Warbird · **Joined:** Tue Jun 14, 2005 8:56 pm **Posts:** 407

How about a movie based on the Malta Blitz 42-43.

Dave

DazDaMan · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2005 4:38 am

A few from me:

An adaptation of "Ace" would be great. I read the book over the summer (most of it whilst on the plane to Tenerife and back!) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not many fiction books written from the point of view of the other side.

Another story about Malta. Screwball Beurling springs to mind immediately (and could be played by an American, probably).

Geoff Wellum's First Light is rumoured to be under development at the moment.

A remake of the WW1 movie "Wings" wouldn't be impossible, as there are quite a few WW1 replicas around. Or, a remake set in WW2?? (I'm actually working on a version of this!)

A big budget movie about the Tuskeegee pilots - HBO's made-for-TV film was good, but a big screen version would probably be better received. Isn't there one rumoured to be in development?

I have more ideas, but must crack on with some work!

PJ · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2005 6:53 am

How about the shootdown of Yamamoto? Plenty of P-38 action plus a Betty. Also the cracking of the Japanese code.
PJ

DazDaMan · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2005 8:11 am

A remake of Reach for the Sky - yes please!

Jiggersfromsphilly · **Joined:** Fri Jun 17, 2005 3:15 pm **Posts:** 951

I'd like to see a Band of Brothers about Robert Rosenthal and the 100th group. How about a Finns vs Ruskies with all those Brewsters and heinkels mixing it up?

Wolverine · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2005 8:18 am

I'd honestly like to see the raids on Japan.

Or a B-17 crew getting shot down...but less comical than the one with Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale, etc...

Kansan · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2005 9:11 am

B-29 Super Fort wrote:

Any other ideas?

Not based on the actual air war, but very feasible to make given current resources, would be a movie of Duane Unkefer's book "Gray Eagles" - which has been mentioned several times on the UK Key Publishing forum.

It's 1976 - Eight Bf109s are restored in secret and flown by ex WWII Luftwaffe pilots (whose leader has a grudge) from a secret base near Phoenix. AZ (oh yes!) and shooting up a warbird display somewhere and a modern USAF AFB (forget which). Hero is an ex P-51 pilot (subject of luftwaffe leader's grudge) who recruits some WWII vet buddies to go after them after he does a deal with the feds.
Also features:
* an expat Brit veteran from Milwaukee flying a Spitfire (presumably for ethnic balance)
* a rather nice scene of a 109 shooting up/down an F-5.
* an investigator hero who's obsessed with warbirds

Promising or what? If I had the money I'd be loooking for the rights!

Rob / Kansan

Ontario-Warbird · **Joined:** Tue Jun 14, 2005 8:56 pm **Posts:** 407

Another story about Malta. Screwball Beurling springs to mind immediately (and could be played by an American, probably).

Not to sound anti- American but if a movie were to be made about Mr. Beurling it would be nice to see a Canadian play the role of one of our top aces.

Also i see all over that people referre to Mr. Buerling as " screwball " not a very nice lablel to paste on a man who destroyed 27+ enemy aircraft in 14 days. I asked Jerry Billing ( freind of Mr. Beurling and the Buerling family ) about the nickname and he said " George didn't like the nickname at all ", he also mentioned about a erk that kept calling him " screwball " and George layed him out.

Dave

TimAPNY · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2005 2:04 pm

Ontario-Warbird wrote:

Another story about Malta. Screwball Beurling springs to mind immediately (and could be played by an American, probably).

Not to sound anti- American but if a movie were to be made about Mr. Beurling it would be nice to see a Canadian play the role of one of our top aces.

Also i see all over that people referre to Mr. Buerling as " screwball " not a very nice lablel to paste on a man who destroyed 27+ enemy aircraft in 14 days. I asked Jerry Billing ( freind of Mr. Beurling and the Buerling family ) about the nickname and he said " George didn't like the nickname at all ", he also mentioned about a erk that kept calling him " screwball " and George layed him out.

Dave

I don't care who plays him but PLEASE keep hollywood away from any of these plots, let the fine folks across the pond do it. They seem to have a bit better time at making something that I'd want to watch. :shock:

Tim

Edit:

How about Wallace & Gromet, the Cusre of the Buzz Bunny, trying to intercept those pesky buzz bombs from taking out the victory gardens (or with they only in the US)

Kansan · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2005 2:30 pm

TimApNy wrote:

How about Wallace & Gromet, the Cusre of the Buzz Bunny, trying to intercept those pesky buzz bombs from taking out the victory gardens (or with they only in the US)

They had Dig for Victory in the UK too, I can tell you. In fact many of the gardens in the Wallace and Gromit film are very similar! Even when I was a kid there were still vegetable patches up and down the town where I lived although the public parks were back to being "Leisure Spaces" (80s term, sorry) by then.

I read somewhere recently (on the web) that a large proportion of the UK's demand for vegetables was met by domestic garden production. Given the severe rationing etc in force at the time it's not all that surprising when you get to thinking. Check out "The 1940s House" British TV series that was on PBS a while back.

Rob / Kansan

Owen Miller · **Joined:** Fri Aug 27, 2004 9:28 pm **Posts:** 614

How 'bout a movie about Midway using REAL characters and telling the
REAL story instead of some contrived Hollywood script that over sim-
plifies and distortes what actually happened in favor of a sappy love
story.

AND

a movie about the AVG that tells the REAL story of how 300 Americans beat the hell out of the Japanese and with the love story of Johnny Petach and Red Hanks.

DazDaMan · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2005 3:58 pm

[quote="TimApNy]
How about Wallace & Gromet, the Cusre of the Buzz Bunny[/quote]

Buzz Bunny?? You trying to make it into a porno? :lol:

Walrus 7 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2005 6:19 pm

Being a parochial Aussie, I would love to see Bobby Gibbes' life story told. We would need a decent gathering of desert Hawks and Pacific Spits and even some Ju52s to do it with. From North Africa to SWPA through Gibbes Sepik to watching Col Pay launch his replica Gibbes P-40 last year. Bobby has written the story himself, and it needs to be shared with the world.

Walrus

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2005 6:23 pm

i always envisioned a movie where the u.s. had to put old museum aircraft back in service due to some major emergency where our normal defense weapons were depleted, & we had no alternative to do otherwise in our national defense. as to the enemy??? no clue ... from godzilla to the taliban, you decide!!!! no...... in case your wondering i gave up the wacky tobaccy 20 years ago after college!!!! :wink:

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