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New HBO mini series on WWII about to be made. (Masters of the Air)


history-buff1944
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tdogchristy90

I will be waiting anxiously, but really would prefer something for the USN in the Pacific.

I thought about this last night. The navy would be the last major force not focused on?...did army/airborne, marines, and now the airforce...just need navy.

 

However wouldn't that require too much cgi to pull off? A sea war seems almost too ambitious. Still, a major naval battle is definitely the missing piece.

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Garandomatic

If they don't call James Hornfischer for LAST STAND OF THE FREAKING TIN CAN SAILORS when the Navy's time comes around, there's gonna be problems!

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RustyCanteen

prefer something for the USN in the Pacific.

 

 

The best is still 'Victory at Sea', but let's hope for the best.

 

But generally speaking on the idea of a Navy themed series (an idea which I would be in love with I should admit):

 

The major problem facing a Navy-centric miniseries is whom (and what) to focus on. Unlike the other, previously produced miniseries, it could be tough to decide what to include, and what to leave out. Naturally no one would be too happy if a Navy series left out Pearl Harbor; but that is a considerable investment to film for what amounts to one episode. Then of course, keeping up with the goings-on in the Atlantic and Pacific could make it tough for viewers to 'follow' a ship or crew.

 

Last but not least, who do you focus on? Destroyers and Submarines would be the ideal focus, but that leaves out the Naval Aviators, PT boats, BB's, Seabees, etc. It would be fun to see such a program though! I suspect the easiest way to start the series is in the Atlantic (we do not really need to see what happened at Pearl Harbor, just as we didn't need to see -and didn't- what happened at Iwo in the last series to put things in perspective). And then, perhaps after introducing the audience to the challenges of the 1941 'Neutrality Patrol' (sinking of the Reuben James) follow a character whose ship is transferred BACK to the Pacific thanks to the events at Pearl Harbor. That would open quite a few doors, what to include and what to leave out? The Submarine campaign; Java Sea; Coral Sea; Fall of the Philippines; Midway; the Naval battles off Guadalcanal; and so on. Like it or not, some of the vital duties and facets of the naval campaigns just won't interest most casual viewers; contrary to the hype about PT boats, they spent more time on barge interception patrols than racing around at full throttle sinking enemy capital ships. The duty was absolutely vital (and hair raising if you read about some of the missions), but not something the average viewer would find gripping, as say, the middle of the third naval battle off Guadalcanal where neither side really knew what was happening since it was happening so quickly. Starshells and flashes from rapid mounts on DD's and Cruisers as they flew in all directions would be something CGI could easily recreate, but again, WWII was a big war, as was the US Navy's part in it..so where does one focus for a linear narrative that is limited to perhaps a dozen episodes? It isn't an easy question to answer.

 

No matter what, I will be looking forward to a Navy version.. oh, and there again, there will be those who correctly point out such a Navy-centric program left out the vital (and dangerous) duties of the US Coast Guard and US Merchant Marines..although one of episodes could easily incorporate a convoy element. Sadly, you can't include everything in the limited time-frame allotted.

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If they don't call James Hornfischer for LAST STAND OF THE FREAKING TIN CAN SAILORS when the Navy's time comes around, there's gonna be problems!

 

Really? What exact problems will HBO get from you?

Guys, WW2 was a big conflict and they simply can't make a series on everyone. Heck, I heard someone almost rabidly venting at a show last year about how horrible it was that HBO didn't make a series on the specific 82nd AB unit he had interest in. I just shook my head and walked away.

Instead of griping about what they should make next, we should be extremely grateful for the two groundbreaking series on WW2 they have made!

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Garandomatic

CMon man, as if I am being serious about any kind of hostility. I'll go and write "I am not allowed to root for my favorite part of WWII naval history" a hundred times and sell off my Samar collection. That work??

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CMon man, as if I am being serious about any kind of hostility. I'll go and write "I am not allowed to root for my favorite part of WWII naval history" a hundred times and sell off my Samar collection. That work??

 

The problem with the internet is it lacks a sarcasm button. There should be some sort of generally-understood color you can make your text to avoid such misunderstandings...

But I have personally heard plenty of people with the same message ever since BoB came out in 2001 and I can assure you that very few of them were kidding.

 

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Garandomatic

But I have personally heard plenty of people with the same message ever since BoB came out in 2001 and I can assure you that very few of them were kidding.

 

 

 

Yeah, I can see what you mean there...

 

If they do a Navy series, I'll enjoy whatever they throw together. There's who knows, 90 jumpers in my collection? So any topic would be plenty for me. There's just something about Hornfischer's work that breathes life into the men in the story. Last time I read it, I had to google everybody as I went to see if they made it. The guy can make a man that died in '44 seem as alive as those that did survive. I think that it could give the cohesion that BOB had that was sometimes missing in The Pacific. I think Easy Company got the attention because guys like Guarnere had such regular reunions, and so many men in touch from the same unit, and there is plenty of that for Taffy 3.

 

About the HBO thing, I'm already hurting them as much as I can by not subscribing! Hasn't been much on TV that's interested me since the aliens took over the history channel, an when a storm blew us off the map a few years back an we didn't have electricity for a week, the wife and I dropped everything but netflix since it basically cost us $1200 a year to watch very little of what all of the channels combined offered.

 

I haven't tried it, but I hear there is an online HBO thing where you can watch a show whenever you want, sort of like netflix. I don't even know what it's called, but that'd do the trick for me, as I wasn't real thrilled to think that I' have to subscribe to cable or dish or whatever again.

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The best is still 'Victory at Sea', but let's hope for the best...

 

WWII was a big war, as was the US Navy's part in it..so where does one focus for a linear narrative that is limited to perhaps a dozen episodes? It isn't an easy question to answer.

What RC said above. This is what caused "The Pacific" to suffer - a function of the series' writing more than anything else. The stories are there, but not focusing on a single person is the hard part. The tight relationships of the men in BoB are what really made that series shine, the rest was icing on the cake.

 

I think that making a Navy series focused on a ship which did duty in both the Atlantic and Pacific is the way to give consideration to both...USS Alabama (BB-60) comes to my mind immediately, but there are others. Alabama would be a good choice because it's a museum ship with a history of renting access to Hollywood (think that Segal movie where he was the SEAL cook...ugh). But the Alabama comment also shows my own bias in favor of the ship. Recreating the Murmansk run? Leyte Gulf? Don't know if the stories (and vets!) are there/still alive to make a mini-series hold together for long. If HBO asked my advice (which surely will NOT happen), I'd say to not worry about 10 episodes - shorten it if necessary to keep the writing tight.

 

YMMV.

Steve

 

 

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What RC said above. This is what caused "The Pacific" to suffer - a function of the series' writing more than anything else. The stories are there, but not focusing on a single person is the hard part. The tight relationships of the men in BoB are what really made that series shine, the rest was icing on the cake.

 

 

 

 

Agreed. I actually found myself really enjoying "The Pacific" after I made it through the first few episodes. Once they settled in on their characters and started a narrative, it was a darn good series. Those first few episodes had my head whirling though. I didn't know who was who or what was going on.

 

I think if they learned the lesson from "The Pacific", a series on the Navy would be darn good. My uncles were on the U.S.S. Mullany (a destroyer) and the U.S.S. Bunker Hill (an aircraft carrier). Between the two of them, they saw everything from the invasion of Leyte Gulf and the pre-bombardment of Iwo Jima to the operations to support the amphibious landings in Guam and Saipan. To boot, both ships got hit by kamikaze planes during the invasion of Okinawa.

 

If a series were to use two brothers or two friends that both go into the navy, you could cover a lot of territory, cover different classes of ships and still have a few main characters for the show to anchor on (no pun intended there).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Production of Massive HBO Mini-Series Masters of the Air Moves Forward: The Steven Spielberg-Tom Hanks production of Masters of the Air, the ten part HBO 8th Air Force miniseries, is moving forward with recent reportssuch as this one indicating locations are being scouted in England for some of the filming. There had been reports of earlier filming in Georgia last year, some involving a flying B-17G that has been rebuilt to appear as a B-17F, but the linked report says that filming has not yet started. Those connected to the project are no doubt tight lipped due to production confidentiality requirements. Not publically known yet is what, if any, actual B-17s are to be or have already been utilized in the filming. Reportedly, the story will center of actual exploits of the 100th Bomb Group. Some sources put the project budget at an incredible $500 million, a number which is hard to believe for even a project of this size, but who knows?

 

 

Credit to Aero Vintage Books news page.

 

 

JD

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willysmb44

There had been reports of earlier filming in Georgia last year, some involving a flying B-17G that has been rebuilt to appear as a B-17F

 

That would have to be N3703G, currently flying around in a version of it's movie markings from the "Memphis Belle" remake in 1990.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Holy shinola I am so stoked to hear they've started production on it.
The last halfway decent thing we've gotten of the 8th AF was Memphis Belle

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  • 6 months later...
  • 6 months later...
  • 2 months later...

I have a pal in England who tells me that there isn't any filming taking place in the UK that he knows of yet.

As far as I can find out from friends in the warbird community, a few planes have been hired on for this project but their owners/crews are sworn to secrecy. I don't know of a single real B-17 that's going over the channel to take part, though. Not yet, anyway, but it's going into Winter, so maybe this spring?

Just like with The Pacific series years back, it'll all be rumors at best until a finished product is released.

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I have a pal in England who tells me that there isn't any filming taking place in the UK that he knows of yet.

As far as I can find out from friends in the warbird community, a few planes have been hired on for this project but their owners/crews are sworn to secrecy. I don't know of a single real B-17 that's going over the channel to take part, though. Not yet, anyway, but it's going into Winter, so maybe this spring?

Just like with The Pacific series years back, it'll all be rumors at best until a finished product is released.

 

From what I understand from John Orloff's twitter at least is that they're shooting for a 2018-2019 release timeframe (but that's speculative)

So far I've heard they've done principal shooting in Savannah GA, tons of research, writing, probably some location scouting at this point, and veteran interviews. At this stage I'd assume they're still looking at options for aircraft and such.

It'd be really cool to see them get a few 17s and maybe a 24 over there for shooting but we shall certainly see.

 

From reading the book, I know I'm very interested to see if they have Hap Arnold, Spaatz, Eaker, Doolittle included to show the Bomber Mafia, or possibly even Clark Gable or Jimmy Stuart.

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