Masters of the Air on HBO

Has anyone heard any latest info about the progress of this show? Would be SUCH a great addition to BoB and THE PACIFIC?

 

no but id sure like to know myself!

 

After the initial announcement of the project HBO, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks went dark on the project. It will happen but there have not been any updates.

HOWEVER the author of the book discussed another related project in an interview I saw online. He collaborated with Hanks on a documentary about ptsd called "They Have Seen War". Miller helped collect interviews for the documentary. That was in 2011. My guess is that they also interviewed pilots and crew from the Eighth as part of the pre-production process towards writing the scripts for the series.

I check the activities of the other producers and directors regularly (Graham Yost, producer of Justified, Bruce C. McKenna, Tony To who is working on Star Wars Rogue One, Gary Goetzman who is producing Lewis and Clark with Tom Hanks, and others)...

There is Nada about Masters of the Air. I play a game with my wife where whenever we see a recent film with British actors. We speculate on who will be of exactly the right age to play in Masters Of The Air when they get around to casting the series.

 

I never knew THE PACIFIC was coming out when it did, and never heard any announcements or hype about it. But to be honest, I don't have HBO and never pay attention to Hollywood talk, though. Was there lot of hype when it came out a few years ago, and if not, maybe just a pattern to be followed with MASTERS OF THE AIR?

 

I also missed it when it was broadcast and didn't see it coming. But there would be ay least some information on cast and crew on Internet Movie Data Base before the series is broadcast. They're set to spend 500 million dollars on the thing. I imagine they will hype it up.

 

Truth.

 

Thanks for the thread. Have you read the book and what did you think? What do you think their approach will be? What were your favorite themes or sections from the book?

I ask because Band of Brothers had a specific focus on a relatively small group of paras and their ground war. We, the audience are not given much context for a lot of what is happening on screen except for the framing devices of the interviews with veterans (45 seconds to a minute) and the end title cards - usually two lines or three.

The Pacific had a short introduction (on the dvd at least, I did not see the broadcast version) to set up each episode. Then they would launch into the Marine on the ground point of view of the war. Given the source material (the books by Sledge and Leckie don't give you much more context than the Ambrose book does for Band of Brothers).

"Masters Of The Air" covers EVERYTHING. You have huge biographical sections about Arnold, Spatz and the other commanding heads of the air force. You have sections on the development of the theories behind Strategic Bombing and the actual statistical results. There are lengthy explainations on war manufacturing and why long range fighters were so late to enter combat. There are descriptions of the bombings of Hamburg and other German cities from the point of view of the civilian populations and ditto for London. There are chapters on sexual relations between American servicemen and British civilians, and on race relations within the American command. The medical effects of frostbite and battle fatigue are discussed in depth. News coverage and reporters are given their due. He covers Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart. The subject of the book is huge! Any single section of the book could be the subject of a ten hour mini-series.

Given the focus of the previous series on the fighting man to the exclusion of pretty much everything else, I am afraid the most interesting material will be left out. I would love for them to take an approach resembling "From The Earth To The Moon" that divides into episodic themes. In "From The Earth To The Moon" Hanks and co. started with the political development of the space race in ep1. In following episodes they went from the Apollo 1 fire to the evolving role of media in America (Apollo 13 ep) to the Science and engineering of the moon program to sacrifice of the Astronaut wives, and the tone veered from funny comedic episodes (Apollo 12) to downright grim (the 1968 episode).

Also Miller's book doesn't have a single protagonist or group who go through each and every phase of the war. Given their short life expectancies, crew men rotated in and often went out the same day. They were scattered all over England on several bases and mostly didn't come into contact with each other. Some crewmen were shot down and spent most of the war in POW camps.

Another problem is that the story of the eigth Air Force has been told very well before. If you don't want to just retread ground covered by "Twelve O'Clock High" or "The Great Escape" or "Memphis Belle" you have to be very clever.

 

I have started the book, and I find it very in-depth and intimidating, to be honest. It reminds of The History Channel's documentary on the air war. I have no idea how this could be covered; I was wondering myself if it wouldn't be a smattering of some particular stories here and there glossed into a whole one. But, I've only started the book.

I think it's cool they are making a series dedicated to each branch of service, and now I wonder what the one for the Navy will be like and what books that could be based off of. And how would they cover key battles in that one, too.

And I guess I should add, I was wondering if announcements for the show would be kept a little low-key just out of a sense of modesty and respect for the men involved and appropriate to the servicemen's attitude, not something flashy or too Hollywood-y.

 

So I just contacted the Mighty Eighth Museum in Savannah, GA and this is what they told me:

 

OK I don't know what's happening with my Internet. I will try and finish this later.

 

Otto,

It's interesting to me you felt that way about BoB vs. THE PACIFIC. I honestly take them the opposite! I always thought THE PACIFIC was deliberately more emoi

 

Me too. When I watched it the second time I became more familiar with many of the background characters also, such as Gibson. There were a lot of little things I picked up also, that I missed during my initial viewing when the series premiered. It's hard for me to judge how my initial viewing of BoB was (other than I liked it from the first) because I had watched it several times before I ever saw the Pacific to compare it to. First time I watched it post "The Pacific" I was struck at how it was much cleaner and less brutal.

 

I agree. The Pacific is much better the second time around. Though I agree with Otto that the characters were easier to connect with in BoB from the jump, the Pacific was a masterpiece. Never fully appreciated it until I revisited the story.

 

Yes, same here. It was neat to go back and deliberately try to pay attention to characters like Chuckler, etc.

I always thought that THE PACIFIC was deliberately more emotional about the horrors of war, morso than the heroism and sacrifice of our Marines over there. I remember thinking during the Peleliu landing, that it looked exactly like the perspective as if you were on the landing craft and beach yourself---the camera is eye-level and jerky/chaotic like you're one of the Marines in the scene yourself. I'm fine with that since they didn't make any PC messages/slap on the wrist nonsense about war (and who is going to argue that war is hell?), but it really probably would have been so much more if they had focused on the bond, honour, and heroism of them. I can overlook that slight, too, because I know Marines embody all of that anyway and don't need to brag about it (haha). It would have also been nice to see more of the enemy/more of a face put to them like it was in BoB. It was still very well done, though, in my opinion. I don't believe anyone but Spielberg and Hanks could do it.

I think I would prefer an isolated unit approach to MASTERS/MIGHTY, instead of unrelated guys's stories here and there to make an overall story.

 

I'd almost rather they go ahead and make a great series for the Navy as well, so they can get as many interviews as they can, before this generation fades into the past forever!

 

From the available literature the "Masters of the Air"miniseries will center on the 100th Bomb Group aka "The Bloody 100th".
http://blog.zeiglerhouseinn.com/2013/11/innkeepers-dad-takes-flight-savannah.html
http://savannahnow.com/news/2013-10-18/world-war-ii-vets-share-b-17-memories-savannah
http://www.flyingmag.com/pilots-places/pilots-adventures-more/masters-air-tribute-mighty-eighth
http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/local/clermontcounty/2014/05/21/frank-bud-buschmeier-veterans-story/9371183/

It is good to see Hanks & Spielberg hopefully returning to their original formula of following one unit through the war.

 

Given their emphasis on character-driven story lines, the navy is the most problematic. If they finally do a USN series, it would probably be about the "silent service".

 

Stick to it. The first part is very tough going as Miller discusses the early stages of the war and the development of the American Air Force's philosophy of strategic bombing. He later gets into a lot of first hand accounts of both ground and air crew and their experiences. Deeply moving stories. I started to re-read last year it and got side tracked. Wonderful book.

Not sure they have any intention of persuing this and doing any other projects after "The Mighty 8th". The Pacific was a response to veterans asking them again and again to do something about the Pacific Theater of operations. It took them years and this new projects has taken many more. It may happen in time, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

As for them keeping announcements "low-key"... 500 million dollars... humm.