Steven Spielberg & Tom Hanks’ Third World War II Miniseries Secures Source Material
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.
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.