George Lucas' Red Tails

[Mr. Socko]

Variety reports that Star Wars creator George Lucas has hired screenwriter John Ridley to pen the script for Red Tails, Lucas' WWII action adventure about the Tuskegee Airmen to be financed and produced through Lucasfilm.

The film is about a group of African-American fighter pilots who had to overcome racism and the color barrier to become the Tuskegee Airmen, the legendary first African-American pilots in U.S. military history. (The planes were distinguished by their red-painted tails, hence the title.)

According to the Variety story, Lucas hired Ridley after reading L.A. Riots, the Universal/Imagine drama Ridley wrote for director Spike Lee, and Ridley has already met some of the surviving pilots at a Texas convention.

ILM will be handling the effects to make the airborne fight sequences more realistic.

http://forums.superherohype.com/forumdisplay.php?f=31


If he directs it, I'd say this is finally his chance to show he's better for something other than a slab of CG on a stick.

 

[arachnid-guy]

The flight sequences could evoke memories of ANH.

 

[Mr. Credible]

wow, lucas doing something not star wars related?

and it only took him what, like 30 years?

yay!

 

[Hunter Rider]

Sounds Promising.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Well, at least we know the dogfights will be amazing.

If George directs, it'll be interesting to see how it compares to some of his, ah, previous efforts. Sounds cool though.

 

[Timstuff]

Excellent to see Lucas finally moving on from Star Wars.

 

[DeaDheaD]

Lucus will do it, then do a prequel called WW1

 

[nocomics]

It cant be worse than the other movie about the tuskegee airmen. Since ILM is doin CGI, it should be good. If they can get the aerial battles on par with 'Fly Boy's' it should be good..As I thought the aerial fights in Fly Boy's was great. I hate to say it even the dog fights in Pearl Harbor were decent.
Just hope Lucas can do it justice,he has that Rick mcullen guy producing not sure Im a big fan of his work with star wars,but /shrug we will see.
Ya, will agree nice to see Lucas doin something other than producing/directing SW movies....

 

[Catman]

Lucas and WWII in the same sentence? Sounds like a Twilight Zone episode.

 

[Caliber]

Lucus will do it, then do a prequel called WW1

Sounds like a good idea that we'll let the SW fans talk about something besides how much they hate the prequals.

 

[Cinemaman]

Lucus will do it, then do a prequel called WW1

Wrong, he will make WWII: Episode II, Attack of the Fascists before that

 

[Mr. Socko]

Lucas and WWII in the same sentence? Sounds like a Twilight Zone episode.

I say give him a chance. This could be the project that could win Lucas an oscar.

 

[Cinemaman]

^^^

Oh yeah!

 

[The Amazing Lee]

Lucas and WWII in the same sentence? Sounds like a Twilight Zone episode.

Ever heard of Indiana Jones?

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/showestnews.php?id=42955

Exclusive: George Lucas' Red Tails in '09?
Source: Edward Douglas
March 14, 2008

Some of the biggest excitement surrounding this year's ShoWest convention was the fact that George Lucas himself was appearing to present footage from his upcoming animated feature Star Wars: The Clone Wars at Warner Bros.' "The Big Picture" presentation.

ComingSoon.net had a very rare once-in-a-lifetime chance to sit down with Mr. George Lucas after the Warner Bros. presentation and we talked to him about the animated feature, the series and the future of "Star Wars." As a brief taster for that interview, we found out how things were going on Red Tails, the film he's producing about the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all African-American pilot squad during World War II. With all the work that Mr. Lucas has been doing on his two upcoming television shows, we wondered about his future working in film and if he still had time to work on the war epic written by John Ridley.

"As a matter of fact, I'm working on it tomorrow," he told us, much to our surprise. "We're getting towards a script, and probably start shooting before the end of the year, and it should come out next year, maybe. That's probably going to be the last movie I do, apart from my own movies, but my own movies are going to be more esoteric and probably will come and go in a week and be in one or two arthouses. It's basically the same as what Francis (Ford Coppola) is doing."

Look for our full interview with Mr. Lucas next week--it's a good one and you won't want to miss it! Star Wars: The Clone Wars opens exclusively in theaters on August 15, followed by the launch of the animated series sometime in the fall.

 

[terry78]

All the Tuskeegee airmen will sound like Jar Jar.

"Weesa gonna die in dis war?"

 

[Matt]

I have absolutely zero interest as Lucas is directing this and well...he's not very good at directing. He should stick to producing.

 

[Hush]

He did an okay job in Ep3 and Ep4. Im excited for this , he just needs to wokr on his dialouge skills.

 

[SuperHeroHype]

George Lucas is not directing this, he's producing.

 

[Octoberist]

He did an okay job in Ep3 and Ep4. Im excited for this , he just needs to wokr on his dialouge skills.

He was good with American Graffiti and that was non-Star Wars. At the sametime, it was nearly filmed 30 years ago...

 

[Nirvana]

This movie could be good. So he's officially not directing this?

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/882/882483p1.html

Red Tails Director Scoop
George Lucas' long-in-development WWII movie.
by Jim Vejvoda


US, June 17, 2008 - With the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies now behind him, George Lucas is reportedly going to finally turn his attention back to all those smaller, more personal indie films he always said he wanted to make.

According to The Associated Press, Lucas plans on finally bringing the long-gestating World War II film Red Tails to the big screen. The project, scripted by John Ridley, recounts the World War II exploits of the famed African-American Tuskegee Airmen.

Producer Rick McCallum informed the AP that Ridley's script "balances difficult and painful issues with what is, at its heart, the story of men with a dream to fly and serve their country." He added, "It is a story of incredible adventure and enormous courage."

Location scouting is under way in Prague and Italy, with filming possibly to begin as soon as late 2008 or early 2009.

While the AP report gives the impression that Lucas is directing Red Tails, IGN has learned that's not the case and that Lucas has been quietly meeting with director candidates at his Skywalker Ranch over the last few months. IGN has been told the name of one such contender, but we have been sworn to secrecy about their identity. We can say that they are not an A-list helmer.

 

[The Amazing Lee]

:inlove:

If it's as intimate and upclose as American Graffiti, than it'll be a riot. :inlove:

 

[Han-Solo]

Sounds Promising.

 

[Bim]

I've been hearing about this movie for a while... good to see that it's finally moving forward... sounds cool

Ok i just found an article on this: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/film_tuskegee_airmen

Tuskegee Airmen to be subject of George Lucas film
By DESIREE HUNTER, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jun 17, 7:27 AM ET

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The black airmen whose lives will be the basis of a George Lucas movie know the picture will highlight their record of successfully escorting thousands of U.S. bombers in World War II.

They also feel it should tell of the trials they encountered stateside, like seeing German prisoners of war being treated better and afforded rights that were withheld from black American citizens.

Now that "Red Tails" is in preproduction, some of the airmen say they are excited their story is coming to the big screen but torn over how much it should devote to each of their two historic fights — against Adolf Hitler abroad and Jim Crow at home.

Lt. Col. Eldridge F. Williams, 91, wants the film to recount the discrimination they had to overcome in their own country. Williams, who served in the military from August 1941 to November 1963, said a white doctor's false diagnosis of an eye condition kept him from achieving his dream of being a pilot, though he became a navigator.

"I think the story that has not been told is stories like mine in which the home battle that was waged ... shall we say, helped open the door so that the unit could enter combat and demonstrate its capabilities and be successful," he said.

Col. Herbert Carter, who also was with the airmen in the '40s, said the racism the men encountered should definitely be mentioned but not dwelled upon in the Lucas film.

"So many want the movies to focus in that sense and that's bitter history that has been thoroughly emphasized and publicized," the 88-year-old said in an interview.

He said the real story is how they blew apart the notion that blacks could not fly planes in war.

Producer Rick McCallum said both elements are addressed in a script by John Ridley that "balances difficult and painful issues with what is, at its heart, the story of men with a dream to fly and serve their country."

Lucas hopes to begin shooting by year's end or early 2009, McCallum said. The movie's title refers to the color of their fighter planes' tails, which were distinctive and allowed U.S. bomber crews to know they were being escorted by the aggressive Tuskegee Airmen.

"It is a story of incredible adventure and enormous courage," said the producer, who's scouting locations for "Red Tails" in Prague, Czech Republic, and Italy. "I think the story will speak to anyone who has ever wanted to succeed at something others told them was impossible."

At first called the "Tuskegee Experiment," the first aviation cadet class began with 13 students at the Tuskegee Army Air Field, about 40 miles east of Montgomery, in July 1941. Black people weren't allowed to fly in the military at the time and the "experiment" was to see whether they could pilot airplanes and handle heavy machinery.

Over the next four years, the airmen went on more than 15,000 combat trips throughout Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa.

Nearly 1,000 pilots were trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field before its 1946 closing, after which the men from the all-black units were sent to an air base in Ohio. President Truman's 1948 order to desegregate the country's armed forces eventually led to a racially mixed military.

The men have been the subject of several documentaries and books. But a 1995 HBO movie "The Tuskegee Airmen," starring Laurence Fishburne, was the film that jump-started much of the attention the airmen have received in recent years, said Christine Biggers, a park ranger at the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site.

The HBO movie "was about 50 percent Hollywood, but it gave a good overview and got the word out. People all over the world saw it and it whetted their appetite to want to know more," Biggers said.

Lucas plans for the movie to be based on the historic record that brought the Tuskegee Airmen fame, drawn from their own accounts.

Carter was one of several airmen who were invited to Lucas' Skywalker Ranch a few years ago to record their oral histories, which will be used in developing the film.

Carter tells of the constant adjustment of being respected as a soldier on base, then having that dignity snatched away once off-base, where they were "just another Negro in Alabama in the eyes of the civilian population."

But he said the real story is how they overcame an environment that said "they didn't have the ability, dexterity, physiology and psychology to operate something as complicated as aircrafts or tanks."

The black airmen's response was "train me and let me demonstrate I can," Carter said. "We said the antidote to racism was excellence and performance and that is what we did."



It's great that these men were interviewed at Skywalker Ranch... hopefully it will bring more realism to the story