Spielberg/Hanks 'Masters of the Air' sequel is 'Band of Brothers' With Planes
 

Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg produce Apple's upcoming follow-up to the epic WWII series, with Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan leading an up-and-coming cast

Based on Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name, and scripted by John Orloff, Masters of the Air follows the men of the 100th Bomb Group (the “Bloody Hundredth”) as they conduct perilous bombing raids over Nazi Germany and grapple with the frigid conditions, lack of oxygen, and sheer terror of combat conducted at 25,000 feet in the air.

Portraying the psychological and emotional price paid by these young men as they helped destroy the horror of Hitler’s Third Reich, is at the heart of Masters of the Air. Some were shot down and captured; some were wounded or killed. And some were lucky enough to make it home. Regardless of individual fate, a toll was exacted on them all.

Ranging in location from the bucolic fields and villages of southeast England, to the harsh deprivations of a German Prisoner of War Camp, and depicting a unique and crucial time in world history, Masters of the Air is enormous in both scale and scope, and a genuine cinematic achievement.
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Awesome.. I am extremely interested in the air war in WWII.. I love the American planes but I don’t know why I gravitate to the German aircraft.. The ME 109 and the FW 190 were the top of the line till America produced the P51..

Band of Brothers level is a really high bar to take on. But, they got the right people involved and the budget to do it right.

If they hit Band of Brothers performance it will be awesome.

If you haven’t already, if you ever get a chance visit the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum outside Savannah, GA: https://www.mightyeighth.org/

I thought The Pacific was excellent but still fell short of BOB.

ahhhhh shit...

gonna have to see this.

My dad flew in the 390th Bomb Group in the 8th. I need to make the trek down there one day soon.

I cant remember a better mini-series than BOB. Its at the top.

I watched a video recently about Bastogne. You can still go there and see the foxholes that easy company dug in those woods.

{Fanboy Squeeeeeee!!!!!!!}

I'm in.

"The Germans always make good stuff."

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Lol

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I like planes.

So excited about this project. Hopefully there will be a lot of actual aircraft, and not just computer generated crap.

In

This like lamp…

Spielberg has finally caved considering streaming content, he was against the idea of feature movies on streaming services strictly for that medium

Interesting fact; the Army Air Corps lost more servicemen over the skies of Europe than the entire USMC did during the war.

Like everyone else- I have high expectations for this series, and hope they do it justice.

Spielberg is the reason BoB got made in the first place. It was always going to HBO. Whats you talking about Willis?

Masters of the Air will premiere on January 26, 2024, on Apple TV+.

The series will have a two-episode launch before airing weekly until its finale on March 15.

Development on the series was first reported in 2012, but it wasn’t confirmed by HBO until a year later. The network also confirmed the return of Spielberg and Hanks, alongside Gary Goetzman as executive producers.

Updates were few and far between for six years – and then came the shocking announcement: HBO wasn’t moving forward with Masters of the Air, but Apple had picked it up for its burgeoning streaming platform, making it the first project under its in-house Apple Studios production company.

https://collider.com/steven-spielber...ease-comments/

It's not the same thing. BOB and The Pacific were mini-series made specifically for that platform. He had issue with movies not getting a chance to play in theaters. I'm certain he would have made this mini-series for HBO again in either event because he never expected it to get a theatrical release.

Long overdue in this format I am pumped for this. Memphis Belle was really really good but if this is anywhere near BOB or The Pacific it will be epic.

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More info on the show

Though the previous two series were filled with star actors, most of the major players were still relatively unknown actors at the time who went on to have big careers. "Masters of the Air" is starting with two actors who have already been nominated for big awards: Austin Butler (Maj. Gale Cleven) was recently nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in "Elvis," while Barry Keoghan was nominated for his role in "The Banshees of Inisherin."

The series is not just a reunion for Hanks and Spielberg, but many of the writers and on-set consultants from "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific" are returning. Writer Jon Orloff, who adapted the first few episodes of "Masters of the Air" for the screen, also wrote "Band of Brothers" and served as a consultant on "The Pacific." The author of the book, Donald L. Miller, also consulted on "The Pacific."

Directing the first four episodes of the new series is HBO alum Cary Fukunaga, whose work includes the anthology series "True Detective," as well as the James Bond film "No Time to Die." The show's creators have since distanced themselves from Fukunaga amid allegations surrounding his on-set behavior and inappropriate relationships. Since then, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck ("Captain Marvel") were called on to direct two episodes, as was Dee Rees ("Empire"). Director Tim Van Patten, who helmed the series' last episode, also directed "The Pacific."

The first two episodes of "Masters of the Air" will premiere on Apple TV+ starting Jan. 26, 2024, continuing weekly through March 15.

Excited for this. Last summer I stood on the beaches of Normandy and took it all in. I love anything related to WWII. Grandfather served in Europe.

A few months ago, I was on a YouTube kick watching videos about the Pacific aircraft carrier battles of WWII.

Pretty crazy stuff.

BOB was AWESOME! PACIFIC, Meh - I hope they nail this one!

OP updated with the fantastic trailer released this week.

From the looks of the trailer, it looks like they nailed it.

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Can't wait

The Pacific was hardly "meh." While it wasn't as good as BoB, it was still awesome. Because it focused on the combat and non-combat experiences of three individual soldiers from different units rather than the men of a single company, it lacked the cohesiveness and didn't have quite the action content of BoB. But all those stories were still interesting.

I rewatched it recently and I thought it did a nice job of encapsulating the comparative meat grinder that was the pacific theater. Especially in comparison to the European theater.

If you haven't, I highly recommend reading Eugene Sledge's book, With The Old Guard, which his part of The Pacific is based upon. It reads like you and he are just sitting around and he's telling you what happened to him. The show only scratched the surface of how truly horrible it was.

I would have much rather fought in Europe than the Pacific.

The Okinawa episode.

I suppose, but as has been said by someone with far more historical knowledge and combat experience than me-- the deadliest battle is the one you're currently in. Who can say Tarawa was worse than Omaha Beach?

The fact that 8 of 11 Germans who died in WWII were killed by the Russians certainly helped the Allies, but the U.S. still lost more than twice the number of troops in Europe in a shorter amount of total time than we did in the Pacific.

A couple of months ago I posted a fact re: the air war over Europe; more Army Air Corps soldiers were killed in action over the skies of Europe than the entire Marine Corps during the war. Was the air war more of a meat-grinder than the Pacific theater? If you go by pure number of casualties, it certainly was.

Anyway. I didn't mean to come off like a dick. If we were drinking beers around a fire, you'd know by my tone of voice I'm just making conversation. I'm looking forward to this too.

The main thing that made the Pacific theater worse was the enemy. Your average German soldier wasn't all that different from your average American soldier. Sure, they were capable of great violence and acts of savagery, but generally if you were an American captured by Germans you'd survive mostly unscathed. Same with Germans captured by Americans. The Japanese, OTOH, were generally sadistic fanatics with little regard for their own lives and absolutely none for ours or anybody else's.

Sure, more people died in the European theater. More people fought there. And those bombers conducting daylight raids were deathtraps. But who would you rather face in combat; Germans or Japanese?

P-38 and p-47 were my planes I loved. Also had soft spot for P-40. On American side.

Germans FW-190, and ME-262

British Spitrefire mk9 was a beast

Spitfire was my favorite as a kid, then the P-51D Mustang, and then the F4U Corsair. Was also a big fan of the F6 Hellcat.

In the early '90s there was a WWII air combat sim game called 'AirWarrior,' that I played for awhile, which featured 'realistic' aerodynamics and performance parameters for each aircraft. So, for example, if you tried to hold a max rate flat turn in any plane, it'd quickly lose enough AS to stall, usually resulting in a spin. The Corsair would flip over into an upside-down flat spin, true to the actual plane's tendencies.

I quickly learned the advantages/disadvantages between stall fighters and E fighters, and why planes like the Mustang and the Corsair were so feared by Axis pilots.

Was a big Mustang fan for obvious reasons - it was a war winner as a bomber escort.

And man, if you don't like the P-38 lighting, you're doing it wrong.

Now as to the show itself - I'm a little worried about the characters. BoB was character driven. The action/cinematography helped, but it was Damien Lewis, Ron Livingston and all the rest of those guys just killing those roles that made that series timeless.

I don't feel like these guys look like they have that?

I notice the small reference to the Tuskeegee airmen, looking forward to a good representation of their story...unlike Red Tails...oy...

My Dad took me to the National Championship air Races back in the 90's (Maybe it was at Whiteman base?).

Anyway, plenty of P51's and such, but there was a Corsair that just looked and sounded so badass. Was always fond of the Corsair after that day.

Another great plane of the day was the P-47D Thunderbolt. Great big P&W Double Wasp R-2800 Radial air-cooled 18-cylinder engine making over 2,000 HP. Kind of an armored muscle car with wings and eight .50 cal machineguns, lol. Didn't turn for shit but had a great roll rate and could out-zoom climb most enemy fighters of the day. The Thunderbolt, sometimes nicknamed the "Jug," by its flightcrews, initially was the bomber escort fighter for the allies until the introduction of the P-51D Mustang.

In my formative years, I was a sucker for the bombers. I think they're just elegantly beautiful. The fighters were like Amanda Nunes. Short, stocky, strong, fast, and angry. Not necessarily wholly unattractive, but you're signing on for the physical manifestation of explosiveness. The bombers were like Charlize Theron. Long, lean, efficient and clean. Unfortunately, not too good in a fight. I haven't really thought about how I feel about them after fully grasping the degree to which they were a deathtrap.

If you're asking today, give me the mosquito. That thing was an absolute unit.

https://airwingmedia.com/wp-content/...osquito-03.jpg

https://airwingmedia.com/wp-content/...osquito-01.jpg

Love the Mossie. Fastest prop-driven aircraft of WWII. Freaking wings were made of wood. I think the wing surfaces were canvas, or some kind of cloth material.


Another beautiful bomber of the day was the A-26 Invader:
https://vintageaviationnews.com/wp-c...r-Squadron.jpg

https://imgproc.airliners.net/photos...7671.jpg?v=v40


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I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the Mitchell.

Hideous thing. And really pretty much a piece of shit; range was poor unless stripped down. They really lacked power (look up "Flying the Hump -- India to China over the Himalayas and those things would occasionally just run out of ass and crash trying to do it). Not much in the way of loadout, speed or durability.

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/wp...9890085142.jpg

But by god, for a bit there they were the best we had. We had to get the job done with them and we did. Granted, having huge swinging balls like James Doolittle did certainly didn't hurt, but at least a little credit is due to one of the uglier planes we ever put in the air.

saw a b 25 with a canon in the nose the other day on facebook. Massive airbrake when thaat at thing fired

https://planesoffame.org/uploads/ima...urger-rmpg.jpg

The FW 190… In the hands of an expert flyer this plane was hard to beat..

A lot of people don’t know that in the later stages of the bombing campaign of Germany, the Germans would put bombs on the 190s and ME 109s and drop them into the B-17 bomber formations with good results.. Then they would engage the bombers with their guns and cannons.
The shear numbers of bomber escorts ( P47s, P51s) was just too much to overcome..
Hitler always thought the production of bombers should be more important than making enough fighters..

I took a flight on a B17 once. We were allowed to go wherever we wanted except the cockpit. Cost $450 each. My two siblings and I surprised our father with a ticket as well. One of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. Especially with my father. Could even stick our head out of the top turret.

As an avid collector of USAAF I hope this show doesn’t raise the prices of their items like Band Of Brothers did. Any PIR items are crazy priced.

Watched the first episode last night. Pretty good, I’d give it a B grade. BoB is hard to live up to, and this one has too much CGI. But as a serious WWII history buff (visited Normandy last summer) still looking forward to the rest of the series.

That was kind of my read on it from the trailer. I dumped AppleTV a few months ago. Once the series is complete I'll probably get it again for a month and binge watch it. I'm sure I'll enjoy it, but not nearly as much as the first two.

The first 2 episodes were just ok nothing special. I guess I expected more character building. Nothing interesting from any of the people so far.

Episode three was awesome. Their depiction of the 1st Regensburg/Schweifurt mission was solid. Definitely better than the 1st two episodes. Really made you feel for what they had to go through.

I've seen all three episodes and it just makes me want to watch BoB again.

So far this just feels a lot like watching Memphis Belle three times.

Other than the usual fighter and flak drama, what harrowing was action is there to be had? I figure it would be a strong character film.

But so far I'm not even lightly attached to any of the characters. I really dislike that actor who played Elvis. Just feels flat as a pancake to me.

Maybe the developing story that started in this last episode will give some variety

I don't dislike the Elvis actor, but damn, I couldn't deal with the Elvis movie. Not because of him, but because of Hanks. It was like watching a film narrated by a creepy old child molesting clown with a fingernails-on-the-chalkboard voice. Ugh. I lasted about half an hour, and had I seen it in the theater I would have walked out.

I think we all see this through the BoB lens. BoB has become some kind of "sacred" TV tale of our brave men of the greatest generation.

A bunch of regular guys used their courage and bodies and not much else to stop the German war machine at Bastogne. One of the nations finest moments.

I'm guilty of it too. I was so excited to post a video on here when I stumbled a YouTube video where they were touring the still existing foxholes at Bastogne.

History shows that even if the German offensive was successful, the Germans were going to lose eventually. But, historians think that easy company shortened the war by a year and saved over a million lives. That is worthy of our respect and admiration.

Was coming in here to post basically the same thing. E3 was pretty good. The R/S mission was epic.

Watched E4 last night, solid. More of a drama episode than action/CGI. It’s decent. You just can’t duplicate the formula/story/characters of BoB but I’m enjoying MOA (despite bad CGI).

Well I am up to date and unimpressed. It's just the same episode over and over rinse and repeat. Just a shame as I had high hopes. I will have to get really bored to find my way back to this.

From everything I've seen and read, this doesn't seem like anything I need to go out of my way to watch. I figure at some point CrappleTV will hijack a couple of my wife's Braves games like they did last year, at which point I'll have to sign back up for it. I'll probably watch it then.

Really not even appointment TV like the first two series were.

I did look up what "feathering an engine" means, since they say it in like every episode.

ICYDK the angle of the propeller blades is adjustable. On multi-engine planes, if one engine goes out, they "feather" or angle the propeller blades straight back on that engine to reduce drag.

I guess the only one left to do after MOA is a mini series on the Navy. Love to see them do it with a Aircraft carrier like the Enterprise. With a tin can crew thrown in for good measure. :D

They had the guy on the train being smuggled by the women and then that entire storyline just disappeared. I keep thinking I must have missed an episode or something.

Turning into a waste of time with this. Not even fair to compare it to BoB or even the Pacific, other than the music that plays during the credits.

Poor writing, poor editing, poor VFX. huge leaps forward in time, glazing over significant events. Thing just feels like a fiction piece.

I was interested to learn SOMETHING about the Tuskegee Airmen, but this just really was a surface level brush with one mission that had zero linear flow or suspense. Again no character development and not believable characters nor performances.

They just literally flew past D-day, with something like one VO delivered over a B-17 flying through the clouds, saying "We did a lot of runs that day."

Feels like this was made on the cheap. Writing is poor. Too bad.

Dang, that's a bummer.

Appreciate the advance recon, though.

I'm enjoying it well enough for what it is, but it is nowhere near the quality of its predecessors. Definitely feels like it was made on a tighter budget than you would have hoped.

Yeah, if you go in expecting BOB you're going to be disappointed. No series is going to be able to top that. I enjoy MOA for what it is. Just a segment of the air war in Europe. Though they may have done better if the story were told through the eyes of a fighter squadron. That may have made for a more exciting series.

I watched through the finale tonight. It was a satisfying end. Spoiler alert - in the end USA are back to back World War champs. Seriously though, it always brings a tear to my eye when you get to the end and they show the bios of the real men that they portrayed in the series.

Yeah, this series doesn’t hold up to BOB or the Pacific. But it grew on me. In the end I really enjoyed it. There is also a companion 1-hour documentary, which seems good so far. I’ve read and watched so many things about WW2, been to the Normandy beaches, etc. and I never knew much about the 100th. I’m glad their story was told.

LMAO :thumb:


Well there's only the naval version left. I don't count "The Pacific" as being the naval version. Since it was all Marines. I'd love it if they were to tell the story of the USS Enterprise. Hell it was Enterprise vs Japan at the end of Guadalcanal as they were the only standing carrier left in the Pacific. Right there is a story that has never really been fully told.

Couldn’t agree more. Always makes me emotional me when they show their life stories at the end. These guys were men and had incredible fortitude compared to society today.

It doesn’t hold up to BOB but it was really good. Would’ve preferred more aerial scenes. I am a collector of AAF POW uniforms, medals, etc so I thoroughly enjoyed the POW scenes. My favorite grouping belongs to a Luft III POW which was where these 100th guys were. So those scenes are always made me picture what he was doing. I’m lucky enough to have a 25 minute oral interview the library of congress had with him.

It was pretty bad. Endless story lines or brief moments that looked like something was being developed and just go nowhere or are completely forgotten. The Crosby love affair especially and mystery of the woman’s job was a giant waste of time. It would have been much better off focusing on perhaps one specific year of missions.

Same. Ending was better. It did have huge problems that I’m flabbergasted that Spielberg and Hanks allowed to stay in or fix.

Definitely bringing up the rear. BoB, Pacific and then way back Masters of the air.

So disappointed

The accompanying documentary, The Bloody Hundredth, is very good, more satisfying than the series itself. Had interviews with some of the real guys, including Rosie.

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Thanks, I'll make a point to watch that



Overall, pretty disappointed with the series, though the finale was a lot better than the rest of it. At least they got me to care about the main characters at the end. Mostly what it did was make me want to rewatch BoB.