Spielberg & Hanks at it again.........

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rdcl

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If you....like me...enjoyed the HBO mini series "Band Of Brothers" and "The Pacific", both produced by Steven Spielberg & Tom Hanks......you might be glad to hear they are producing yet another WW2 mini series for HBO.

This one is entitled: "Masters Of The Air", and will be about the bombing campaigns against nazi Germany by the 8th AF. No word on when it will be shown but as far as I can tell from reading info they have not even begun filming yet....so I imagine it'll be a while.

I don't know about anyone else, but I cannot wait for this!
I WILL re-subscribe to HBO just to be able to see this series.

FWIW I have the "Band Of Brothers" box set on DVD and love it. Greatest mini series ever committed to television IMHO. Period.

I only hope this new series will have the same level of quality. Hanks & Spielberg usually get WW2 stuff right though.


Russ
 
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I didn't see "The Pacific", but "Band Of Brothers" was superb. Not entirely accurate in some particulars, but amazingly realistic. The money was on the screen, for sure. The acting was excellent, particularly considering that so many of the actors, including Damian Lewis and the guy who played Eugene "Doc" Roe among many others, were Brits.

I don't subscribe to HBO, but I might have to at least briefly if the mini-series on the air war comes out before I croak.
 
"Band of Brothers" was excellent.

But I really enjoyed "The Pacific" as my Dad and my wife's Dad both served in this area during WWII.

If you ever thought of women being on the front line of a combat area, just watch what our fighting men went through in the series "The Pacific".

Thanks Tom Hanks and Steven Speilberg for a great job with this series.
 
I'm assuming the series title if from the book Master of the Air
by Donald L. Miller. Excellent book. Possibly the one single volume to get an in depth and fairly complete story on the 8th Air Force based in England.

The 8th suffered 26,000 killed, another 20,000 taken prisoners, and not counting the wounded. During World War II the entire Marine Corps' deaths were 19,000. And the 8th was only one component of America's U.S. Army Air Forces.
 
UncleEd said:
I'm assuming the series title if from the book Master of the Air
by Donald L. Miller. Excellent book.
Click to expand...

According to what I'm reading on line the series will indeed be based on that book.

I have not read it, but need to.

Russ
 
Interestingly when Gen. Jimmy Doolittle took over the 8th, his priority was to attack the Luftwaffe fighters, not just guard the bombers. Gen. Adolf Galland, head of the Luftwaffe fighter command, said that was the beginning of the end of the Luftwaffe's control of the air.

After the war, Doolittle and Galland became friends!
 
sounds good

Probably have to be a lot of special effects with the aircraft. Aren't there only a few flying individual planes of many different types till flying? For example, aren't there less than 10 original flying ME-109's still flying?
 
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Thanks for the heads up on this upcoming series, which is sure to be superb, as the other two were.

In the meantime, if you are interested in the subject, I very highly recommend Stephen Ambrose's The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-45.

We hear a lot about the B-17 "Flying Fortresses" over Europe, but B-24s outnumbered them by the thousands, were an absolute beast to fly, and IMHO are one of the unsung heroes of the air campaign. (A college professor of mine had been a waist gunner on one over Yugoslavia, and had to bail out when its tail was shot off. He just walked to the open space that was left and jumped out, and was taken prisoner for a few months before the war ended.)

Ambrose, who wrote Band of Brothers, is a masterful storyteller of true events, and you will not be able to put this book down. It was a quick read, and absolutely worth your time.

This book includes stories not much known about AAF pilot George McGovern (yes, that George McGovern, who died not long ago) and missions he flew over Germany including his last one, which had a remarkable ending many years later.

Every American who wants to honor the achievements and sacrifices of the 8th Air Force should read this one. It is truly first rate.
 
The B-17 was the fabled glory plane of the European air war while the B-24, though it could deliver more bomb tonnage, just didn't get the publicity.

The German's Gen. Galland, I believe, said the B-24 was easier to shoot down with a main aim point near where the wings joined the fuselage. A short 20mm burst and the wing would fly off.

Getting out of the B-24 for the forward crew, pilots, bombadier navigator, was very problematic as the escape hatch necessitated going aft over the bombay section on an 18-inch catwalk. With a parachute on the back it wasn't easy.

Actor Jimmy Stewart was a veteran of the B-24.
 
I've been excited about this one. I felt band of brothers was great. I own it and watch it every other year. The pacific was OK in my opinion but I don't plan on watching it again.
 
Thanks for the heads up, I have always thought that the daylight bombing campaigns over Europe in World War II were never done justice on the screen. Now, maybe that will be changed.
 
I loved Band of Brothers, was disappointed in The Pacific. Am still looking forward to this though.

B-24 was better on paper (range, bomb load) but are well known as not being able to take the abuse the B-17 did. B-24 were notoriously prone to easily breaking apart in emergency water landings, more so than the B-17.
 
enjoyed both series , looking forward to this new one .
remember the scene in the pacific where the american soldier finds the japanese hiding in the cave? "you left a trail...theyre gonna find us sure now!"
 
Band of Brothers and The Pacific were both well done, and I have them both. I'd really like to see Hanks and Spielberg tackle the African/Italian theater or India Burma China.
The fliers that went over the Himalayan Mountains had a huge amount of courage.
 
UncleEd said:
Interestingly when Gen. Jimmy Doolittle took over the 8th, his priority was to attack the Luftwaffe fighters, not just guard the bombers. Gen. Adolf Galland, head of the Luftwaffe fighter command, said that was the beginning of the end of the Luftwaffe's control of the air.

After the war, Doolittle and Galland became friends!
Click to expand...

Have got the official biography of Galland(by Col. Raymond Toliver and Trevor Constable). Gen. Doolittle wrote the forward to the book.
 
mike from st pete said:
I'd really like to see Hanks and Spielberg tackle the African/Italian theater or India Burma China.
The fliers that went over the Himalayan Mountains had a huge amount of courage.
Click to expand...

I'll second that. The CBI would be a hell of a challenge to film, but could be done. I think there are very few of the old C-46's that flew the Hump still in flying condition. Lots of C-47's, of course.

Italy and Sicily would be easier to do and no less deserving of the treatment.
 
What is interesting to me is where they will get the B-17's. Anyone know exactly how many are still in flying condition? I don't know how reliable the info is but according to Wikipedia there are at least a dozen aircraft still flying.

I know that with special effects & CGI they can replicate hundreds of planes, but they'll need more than a few REAL aircraft for close-up filming.

It'd be cool as all heck if they could gather all the airworthy planes they could.....and paint them period correct! I can't even imagine how expensive such a thing would be......but Hollywood has never been shy about spending money.


Russ
 
Might get ahold of one or two operable ones, i.e. the way it was done for "The Memphis Belle" with Matthew Modine some 20 odd years ago. Ditto for perhaps a ME 109 (BF 109) as was done for same film.

But a few full sized mockups can be constructed for the actors that don't fly but have all the built-in false sides, etc., just as is done for airliners, train cars, submarine interiors, and buildings, etc.

In "Band of Brothers" whole sections of forests were built in a studio out of balsa wood, Syrofoam, which allowed the special effects boys to blow them apart right while the actors were amid the trees. Heck, the towns in "Band" was one set with some of it representing England, some France and some Germany. Just had to round a corner to be in another country.
 
rdcl said:
What is interesting to me is where they will get the B-17's. Anyone know exactly how many are still in flying condition? I don't know how reliable the info is but according to Wikipedia there are at least a dozen aircraft still flying.

I know that with special effects & CGI they can replicate hundreds of planes, but they'll need more than a few REAL aircraft for close-up filming.

It'd be cool as all heck if they could gather all the airworthy planes they could.....and paint them period correct! I can't even imagine how expensive such a thing would be......but Hollywood has never been shy about spending money.


Russ
Click to expand...

I read on another forum that Spielberg and Hanks are trying to engage all the flying B-17s that remain in private hands. One crash-landed a few years ago and is still being rebuilt, I think there are between 8 and 10 they might realistically get for the movie.
 
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