George Lucas’ ‘Red Tails’ Gets Director
..and you might be happy to learn that it isn’t George himself. While he’s long been developing the project, reportedly as far back as the early 90’s, it looks like Lucas’ project chronicling the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II will ..wait for it.. finally be getting off the ground relatively soon.
Instead of directing the project himself, Lucas has hired first time film director Anthony Hemmingway. Â Hemmingway has acted as a second unit director for films such as the update of The Manchurian Candidate, and has acted as a head director for TV shows such as The Wire and Battlestar Galactica. Â An interesting choice and sort of a roll of the dice for what Lucas has sometimes claimed is his dream project.
It’s not certain yet what direction Red Tails may be taking.  It could easily be a period piece / inspiration tale covering the success of the Airmen in the face of racism, and it could also easily turn into an hour and a half of CGI arial dogfights.  Whatever the case, production is set to begin early next year in shooting locations such Prague, Italy, Croatia and England.
As the C.O. of the 332nd Virtual Fighter Group of the IL2 Sturmovik Flight sim series I have been looking forward to this project since I first heard about it. I hope that he picks a decent cast that looks the part as in age etc… I also hope that the story of the Airmen themselves doesn’t get overtaken by the things they had to overcome. I know that the two are inextricably linked, but I think a film that concentrates on the men and their overcoming will go farther than one that will place more light on their hardships than the men themselves.
By the way… our website is at
http:www.332vfg.com
Unless the movie is 3+ hours long then I guess (but hope I’m wrong) historical accuracy will be second place to sentimentalilty.