"Red Tails" The Next George Lucas Production

In an MTV interview here, Lucas talks about his future in Cinema. He says that he will be producing a film called "The Red Tails," a movie about the Tuskegee Airmen in WW2(previously talked about in Charlie Rose). He also said he'll be doing some TV shows, and later will start Directing Again.

It seems like Lucas wants to take a break from directing, but is still excited to direct again.
When do you think Red Tails will come out?; What director do you think he will choose?;is he writing the screenplay or just the story? etc...

I just think it's good he's finally gonna get to something other than Star Wars. He started actually writing TPM over 10 years ago and he still isn't finished with episode III. It has be quite a relief knowing hat he soon can move on from Star Wars and do something completely different.

I wonder if Red Tails will be a realistic take on WWII or a fictional story. After reading up about it I was thinking how cool it would be if Samuel L. Jackson and/or Billy Dee Williams starred in the film.

At last. I've been waiting for Red Tails for an absolute age. I would love to see George's dynamic visual style in an earth bound battle environment.

There was a Tuskagee Airmen film many years ago (with Laurence Fishbourne (?). This Lucas production would be the real deal.

Best film so far involving Mustangs is Empire of the Sun.
George's take on this would be amazing.

I remember that movie. It was really good. I think a George Lucas war movie could be very, very interesting.

It was an HBO movie an I remember it as well. Pretty good, at times a bit melodramatic but recommended. Even at that time Red Tails had been in gestation for a long time.

The visuals should be an improvement as the Tuskegee film used badly colorized old (but real) footage.

Yeah, the HBO film was about the airmen and came out in '95 I think.

I remember waaay back in the early 90's when I first heard about Red Tails.

Thomas Carter(Coach Carter, Save the Last Dance) was set to direct it way back then.

I believe that all his post ROTS films will be more artistic than exciting. Along the same lines as THX. He said in the 60minutes interview that he doesn't care if they all flop at the box office, he will do what he wants, he deserves it.

-Seldon

Master Windu as an Airman?

In the online chapter of the Making of ROTS book now available, there is a short conversation between Jackson and Lucas about Red Tails.

Lucas talks about how it'll focus on their actual heroic deeds and achievements.

Jackson seems very interested at that point.

Then Lucas tells Jackson he'll send him a completed draft to read when it's done. Jackson says somethig like: "That would be fantastic" or something.

So, we could well see Mace Windu as a Tuskegee Airman in the future.

And of course we could get some Pearl Harbor FX with a worthy screenplay ;-).

I hope Lucas directs it himself.

Hey Malducin. Good to see you.

Gobi-1, Lucas said he's just producing it. Of course, he could change his mind.

Well I've got another whole site to run you know ;-) (and still plenty pending things on that)

Red Tails sounds like an interesting project, but I hope Lucas will direct it himself!

if he is producing expect sombody like speilberg to direct.

this has a lot of potential to be a great film. the made for cable one with fishburn and cuba gooding jr was good but was missing something.

yeah sam j and billy dee would be cool but they are probibly too old to be the pilots. need young fresh faces. the real guys were in there 20's. so think like shiref atkins of ER.

MORDOR, maybe Jackson would be an older version of one of the airmen?

Would this maybe replace Apocalypse Now for him?

In the latest interview with Lucas in Wired, he mentions more about future TV projects he's developing.

One is about the media.

The other is about slavery(which he's mentioned before on Charlie Rose).

The interesting things about these projects too is that he said both would be controversial, perhaps too controversial, and that one would take place in a present-day setting while the other would be a futuristic one.

Now, he didn't specifically say which one was present day and futuristic, but let me speculate.

I think it's likely the futuristic one will be about slavery and AI.

That's just a guess, but it seems to fit a little more than the media one being in the future and slavery in the present day(although slavery exists today).

Red Tails...

Blue Harvest...

Hmmmm.....

That would be my guess as well ShaneP.

...

Blue Harvest has already been done ;-)

Episode VII, that's all I hve to say.

HowardFilms
Are you suggesting Redt tails is a cover name for a sequel trilogy?

Red Tails is not a cover name for any film. It's an actual film Lucas has been trying to make for over a decade.

I disagree, I think it is a cover name.

It's not really a matter of disagreeing since that's what actually happened. I think Thomas Carter (he director of Coach Carter) was even hired back then (early to mid 90s) to direct it, and even hired an original Tuskegee airman as consultant.

It could be used as a code name, but Red Tails was an actual project that almost went to principal photography which Lucas has talked about then and he mentions now so maybe it'll happen.

I wonder if there are any online references to that info.

Maybe the OS might have something about the early days on the development on it?

Otherwise, my info comes from a 1990 issue of the Lucasfilm magazine which featured the announcement and Carter and the producer. It also talked about all the research they were doing(taping interviews with the surviving airmen, etc).

Let me get the piece and put it here. I'll do that tommorrow.