Eighth Air Force mini-series in development at HBO

[Russ Matthews]

According to today's (January 18, 2013) issue of the Hollywood Reporter, the project will be executive produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Speilberg (who were also responsible for "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific"). The primary source material is said to be historian Donald L. Miller’s nonfiction work Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/hbo-developing-third-wwii-miniseries-413632

[Steve Nelson]

Sounds intriguing. Although I would assume the bulk of the flying shots will be CGI and the interiors shot in soundstage mockups, hopefully they'll get at least a couple of flyable B-17s involved. After the dissappointing "Red Tails," maybe we'll finally get a decent WWII avation flick.

I don't mean to bash CGI here..it's just another tool in the moviemaker's creative arsenal, and when done well, it can create things which simply can't be done in the "real world," such as mass formations of bombers. When done wrong, you get things like "Pearl Harbor" and "Red Tails."

SN

[Thomas_Mac]

http://www.slashfilm.com/steven-spielbe ... iniseries/

Reading the comments in this article are pretty funny

If the Tuskegee Airmen aren't included in this series I won't give it an ounce of my time. They by far were the most successful fighter unit in the history of the United States and the credit for their role in World War II, and how much of an impact their role played, is long overdue.

I needed a follow-up to Red Tails

Apparently some people loved Red Tails

[Dan Jones]

I don't mean to bash CGI here..

SN

I do. Worst thing that ever happened to airplane movies.

[SaxMan]

If you look at "Dogfights" or "Battle 360", CGI can be done well and realistically.

How do you know you are a warbird nut? When you're flipping through channels on the cable box, come across same episode of "Dogfights" for the umpteenth time and still get sucked in.

[lmritger]

I want in... I'll bring my own gear. Who do I need to contact?

Lynn

[Mudge]

"If the Tuskegee Airmen aren't included in this series I won't give it an ounce of my time. They by far were the most successful fighter unit in the history of the United States and the credit for their role in World War II, and how much of an impact their role played, is long overdue."

Hasn't that been done yet? Oh yeah...it has...and poorly!

Mudge the critic

[Jerry O'Neill]

Depending on the shooting days and number of aircraft required, real aircraft are cheaper than CGI ones.
The big difference for producers/directors is that the CGI aircraft can do ANYTHING they desire them to do, regardless of the physics involved. You can also have large groups of aircraft with CGI. I'm not saying that CGI is good, that's just how they look at it in Hollywood.

I'm not a big fan of CGI, put it can put those huge 1,000 plane formations in the production. That'll never happen in real life today with real aircraft.

Unfortunately, CGI is here to stay, I just hope the story line works and is good. The same cannot be said for "Red Tails". That was one klunky script!
Jerry

[Thomas_Mac]

"If the Tuskegee Airmen aren't included in this series I won't give it an ounce of my time. They by far were the most successful fighter unit in the history of the United States and the credit for their role in World War II, and how much of an impact their role played, is long overdue."

Hasn't that been done yet? Oh yeah...it has...and poorly!

Mudge the critic

Funny enough its been done twice, once already by HBO!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tuskegee_Airmen

[cooper9411]

If you look at "Dogfights" or "Battle 360", CGI can be done well and realistically.

How do you know you are a warbird nut? When you're flipping through channels on the cable box, come across same episode of "Dogfights" for the umpteenth time and still get sucked in.

Yeah but at least with "Dogfights" and "Battle 360" I can stand to watch episodes repeatedly

[Richard W.]

I wish they would do something similar in the UK about Bomber Command.

[jtramo]

How great is this gonna be? Just ignore the CGI as I'm sure the story will be just as gripping and well constructed. Hopefully this gets a few real aircraft as well.

[Chris Brame]

Maybe if they use less CGI and more R/C... Miniatures can look so good now (see the Aviator YouTube link on the Emperor thread); just wonder what would happen if they tried to fly a bunch of large-scale B-17s in formation?

[seabee1526]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx0OVnIRD2Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv-2KTh1tMk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J7nuF5bvgk

[PbyCat-Guy]

"If the Tuskegee Airmen aren't included in this series I won't give it an ounce of my time. They by far were the most successful fighter unit in the history of the United States and the credit for their role in World War II, and how much of an impact their role played, is long overdue."

Hasn't that been done yet? Oh yeah...it has...and poorly!

Mudge the critic

The Tuskegee airmen weren't even a part of the 8th AF, they were stationed in Italy, not England, so if this will be about the 8th AF, then they don't need to be a part of it.

I wish someone would do more about the 20th AF and the air war over there.

Dogfights and 360 was the only CGI I could stand to watch.