Former HBO Films president Colin Callender’s Playground Entertainment today announced that they are turning the Flying Tigers into a ten-hour TV miniseries. The Flying Tigers were ace American volunteer pilots who served under General Claire Chennault fighting the Japanese over the skies of China during the Second World War. Playground has partnered with the Chennault family on the project. “We are in discussions with numerous broadcasters in the US and in China on the project,” Jim Griffith, one of the executive producers of The Flying Tigers, told Deadline. Callender, Griffith and Ron Shelton will executive produce the miniseries. Bill Macdonald, the co-creator and writer of HBO’s Rome will produce and write The Flying Tigers. Filming will begin in China and Louisiana in late 2013. As part of the Chinese Air Force, the three squadrons of the Flying Tigers flew their first mission just 12 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Known for the success in the air and the famous teethed nose art on their aircraft, the Tigers later became part of the USAF for the rest of the war. This isn’t the first time the squad has been depicted on film. Back in 1942, John Wayne starred in a Flying Tigers movie from Republic Pictures.

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