Toronto Fest Lands World Preem Of Godfrey Reggio’s … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Man Of Steel’ 
Former Digital Domain CEO & Auditors Sued For Fraud By … 
Fox Acquires ‘Narc’; Zac Efron Attached To Play … 
ABC’s ‘Nashville’ Undergoes Production … 
CBS Wins Season & Ties Sweep In Demo; ABC Tops Adults … 
Mike Lobell Adds Cast To ‘Eisner,’ Plots … 
Sony Shares Rise On Report That It Will Consider … 
Alki David Agrees To End Name Games With Aereo And Barry … 
Next-Gen Xbox One Unveiled With Content Including … 
UPDATE: Apple CEO Challenged For Moving “Crown … 
ESPN Layoffs Could Reach 400 As Part Of Latest Disney Cuts 
Cannes: Weinstein Co Acquires Keanu-Reese Sci-Fi Pic … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Up … 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Wolverine’ 
Ang Lee Departs FX Pilot ‘Tyrant’ 
How Many Times Does Seth MacFarlane Have To Say No To The … 
Cannes: Stanley Weiser To Script ‘Three Graves … 
Cannes: Deadline Crashes Palais Forum With Costa Gavras, … 
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ $164.5M Global: Lower … 
‘The Great Gatsby’ Starts With $5.4M … 
HBO‘s long-in-the-works World War II miniseries project from Band Of Brothers and The Pacific producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, has acquired the rights to Donald L. Miller’s book Masters Of The Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought The Air War Against Nazi Germany, which may be joined by other source material. The project has been in development for months and was announced by HBO programming president Michael Lombardo last October at an event in France. The Band Of Brothers and Pacific follow-up portrays a cross section of officers and enlisted men who served in the Eighth Air Force and fought in the air war against Germany. Based in England, the men of the “Mighty Eighth” faced unprecedented physical, psychological and moral challenges. Hanks, Spielberg and Gary Goetzman executive produce for Playtone and Amblin Television.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
Loading ...
As long as Hanks is doing the “Lee Harvey Oswald alone shot JFK” film I will boycott everything he does. History deserves more honesty.
There’s nothing wrong with believe in the lone gunman theory.
Especially when there’s no conclusive evidence that the conspiracy theories were right/
On the contrary, there’s enormous evidence that Oswald did not act alone. ENORMOUS evidence. Do your research. Many books have been written going through the evidence, the facts, etc. In fact, here’s an “easy” one for you: It was physically impossible to fire 3 bullets from the gun Oswald used, in 6 seconds, with any accuracy. CBS even did tests with 7 or more marksmen with that type of gun.
So who’s going to play Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable?
Another WWII miniseries from HBO? Yawn.
I, for one, am SO SICK of these masturbatory WWII miniseries. I’m an Iraq war veteran, and as far as art goes, I find the ambiguity of the Vietnam and Iraq wars within the films that deal with them infinitely more compelling than yet another Greatest Generation circle-jerk.
The HBO miniseries GENERATION KILL is chock-full of ambiguity. Check it out if you haven’t seen it. And there are plenty of WWII films that aren’t mired in the hero-worship of the current Greatest Generation obsession. One that springs to mind is PLAY DIRTY with Michael Caine. There’s also PATTON and THE BIG RED ONE, a thoroughly unsentimental look at WWII from writer-director Sam Fuller, who actually served during the war.
You clearly did not watch “The Pacific” then
WHAT’S YOUR BEEF WITH WW2 VETS? CAN YOU IMAGINE SOME OF THE PRESENT MILITARY NANNY’S FIGHTING OFF GERMAN FIGHTERS AT MINUS 50-60 DEGREE WEATHER
Weta and Rhythm and Hues
Hopefully it will be more on par with the great characters and writing of BAND OF BROTHERS instead of the bland, cliche and boring THE PACIFIC.
You do realize the 2 theaters of war were different, don’t you? Units stayed together in Europe. In the Pacific, it was island-hopping, with relatively brief battles and then disengagements of whole units.
The Pacific was far from boring and really brought the brutality of the Pacific war into focus. The Germans knew when they were beat and surrendered. The Japanese fought to the death on those islands. Entirely different stories to tell.
Hopefully it’ll be more like “Band of Brothers” and a lot less like “The Pacific.” The former is among my favorite shows, but I just couldn’t get into the latter. It felt rather disjointed and too focused on the characters’ personal lives.
I felt the same way when The Pacific first aired, but liked it much better a few weeks ago when I watched it again. During its original showing, I kept trying to put it into a comparative context with Band of Brothers. When you take The Pacific out of that context, it is much better and has aged pretty well.
Band of Brothers and The Pacific are awful. Saving Private Ryan was amazing, but the miniseries follow-ups were badly made stuff, romanticizing the era rather than being accurate and telling a good story. I find that everything about those projects were downright lazy, criminally. If you want to see a good World War II Air Force movie, watch Tuskeegee Airmen or Memphis Belle.
Roger, what was inaccurate about either Band of Brothers or The Pacific. Spielberg and Hanks went to great lengths to ensure accuracy.
No doubt you have information the don’t? Please share!
Roger C., as a lifelong pilot, I can tell you that both the melodramatic Memphis Belle and the absolutely gaggingly-clichéd Tuskegee Airmen weren’t even remotely realistic.
While I’ve never served or been in combat, it seems obvious to me that Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, and to a somewhat lesser degree The Pacific set a new standard for realism in their subject – combat – and I look forward to seeing what Messrs. Hanks and Spielberg can whip up with respect to AIR combat. It could be the first glimpse the world has ever had into the real lives of pilots.
As a veteran and son of a WW 2 veteran I am thrilled to see Hanks and Speilberg collaborate on another WW2 series. i too found the Pacific more difficult to watch. Speilberg is a great storyteller who sometimes looses his way. Hopefully the characters and stories chronicalling the air war will be as compelling as Band of Brothers. The Airwar was as tense and certainly was more dangerous than any other primary job in American Military History.
im excited about this.
Not sure if it can top 12 O’Clock High. Peck was magnificent.
You are so right, James. 12 O’Clock High is the quintessential movie about the air war in Europe. However, this will be a mini-series, so will no doubt tell more stories.
Really looking forward to this show.
Who will play Sarah Palin in this little “Play Tone” jem?
So glad my boy Gary Goetzman will get some more work. God knows he needs the money desperately!!!
Classic!
To those who commented on The Greatest Generation. Everyone that has served, and their families have made the same sacrifices in any armed conflict. What it appears that you don’t get is the magnitude of WWII. Between the 2 war zones it is estimated between non combat war related deaths and combat deaths there were 50 to 70 million. That would be about 2.5% of the worlds population at the time. 16.1 million Americans served during WWII, based on the 1940 census that would be about 75% of men between 16-34 years old. On average about 220 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines died per day for a 3,5 year time period. Not to mention the industrial production that was done with such a large number of men out of the work force. By 1943 one needed government issued ration coupons to purchase typewriters, coffee, sugar, gasoline, bicycles, clothing, fuel oil, silk, nylon, stoves, shoes, meat, cheese, butter, lard, margarine, canned foods, dried fruits, jam, and many other items. After the for the most part after the war everyone tried to return to life as it was. Not talking about what they had done, not asking for recognition, and not whining about it. This all by about 133.5 million Americans.
Ditto Baby Boomer. I hope they have better writters and more informed writers than the Hollywood liberals that wrote the last Tuskegee airmen and Pearl Harbor movies. I’ve had friends serve in combat in the 91 Gulf war and since after 2002, and the news media totally neglects the current military’s struggle to fight with half what it had 4 yrs ago, but WW2 was a totally different level of war and national attitude. No PC crap back then, no concern about offending anyone, and no concern about killing too many of the enemy; war was an unforgiving reality where our very doom was hovering overhead. The struggle involved so much effort – We built 12,700 of the above B-17s, 18000 larger B-24s, 4000 B-29s, 14000 P-51 fighters, 15000 P-47s, 9000 P-30s, 5000 Navy Hellcats, 60,000 M-4 Tanks, etc. Now the USAF can only has remaining 60 B-52Hs, 65 B-1Bs, 20 B-2s, only got money for 187 F-22s, and its most needed/used aircraft in the current world conflict-the A-10, is being stupidly cut from 340 to less then 240, and on and on. Only the Civil War demanded more sacrifice from the population, and only it affected the nation more. Band of Bros,saveing P.Ryan, and the Pacific were very well done in comparison, but the best war movies were still “Battle of Britain, Tora Tora Tora, and Patton”. The writers were more concerned with accuracy and telling the tale than satisfying romance hungry bored housewives and moronic high schoolers.
Shame on you RLS, I respect your service to this country, but your comments make you sound like some sort of spoiled brat.ALL of those who have served, to give us what we have, should be honored.Something to think about is that there were more Americans killed in the air over Europe in WWII than Marines killed in the Pacific. That alone should humble you……
Just so long as we can keep pretending no person of color participated in any combat or civilian support operations during the entire course of the war. Square jawed Brits portraying Real Midwestern American Heroes only, please.
Where’s the love for the Mediterranean campaign? (North Africa & Sicily) This year marks the 70th anniversary of the allied invasion of Sicily. would like to see more about the men that fought in the pivotal battles.(the Battle of Kasserine Pass, Rommel vs. Patton, Montgomery etc.)
How can you say BoB romanticised the war? Bastogne is one of the best hour long episodes of anything ever, it shows the horror and suffering that those guys felt during that period.
Being british the pacific didnt connect as well with me. But it was still a well made piece.
My grandfather was a WWII pilot who fought over Germany but he has always been (understandably) hesitant to tell me what happened. I am very interested to see how this will pan out, and hopefully it is a success.
Both of the previous mini-series were very well done, and as the producers said themselves the storytelling theme was much different for each project. I am really looking forward to the upcoming mini-series that addresses the Army Air Corps in WWII, however, I am a little bit apprehensive that they will neglect other theaters and spend all the time on the 8thAF. I am hoping for a composite series that will also include the Pacific as well.
My father was a B-17 pilot during the War, and part of the Mighty Eighth. Shot down on his 17th mission, he spent a year in Stalag Luft III. This isn’t an uncommon story, and happened to thousands of airmen. I truly hope Hanks and Spielberg capture that part of the experience that so many airmen went through. I am one who is grateful to this ‘Greatest Generation’ and as equally respectful of every service-man/woman since then, yes, even you RLS. I am anxiously waiting for what will be a great miniseries.
You
ThunkDubious…???? Really?? you never heard of the Tuskegee Airmen? Combat?? do your homework. By people of color I assume you mean “other than white”? Look at the 442nd regiment..outfitted by asian americans and the most decorated group of soldiers in history. father served with the 254th MPs in Alaska and can tell you many “American” people of color died in the cold to build the highway that helped keep the Japanese off the continent.
I have several very good friends who have worn a uniform and have thanked them for their service. I hope homage is paid when the history of the first Gulf War and the current fighting needs to shown to future generations as the VietNam war has been and WWII should still be. Most people are dead now that knew just how close we came to NOT being the US, but a cut up bunch of “districts” with no future by servitude. Any man or woman who has the guts to put on a uniform should be thanked.