"Red Tails" The Next George Lucas Production

Adali, I think it was in the EW.com follow up blurb where they talked to LFL and found out these were planned reshoots.

So, Lucasfilm didn't say Lucas wasn't doing it, only that these reshoots were planned. So that tells me that part of the original article is accurate(i.e. Lucas directing the reshoots).

 

That is how I took it as well; they corrected the part that was inaccurate, meaning since they didn't say "Lucas isn't directing anything" it tells me that that part of the story was true. Since the reshoots were planned before production started anyway, it might not be major scenes as was reported--it could just be a few inserts, a few closeups they made, maybe some cut aways and a few re-done lines. Certainly that is how many of the prequel re-shoots occured. If this is the case then it's really not a big deal that Lucas happened to be the director. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

That's how I see it. In fact, maybe these insert and cockpit shots will feature some fx stuff and we know Lucas is adept with that. I wonder where these reshoots are going to take place? The old Kerner facility in San Rafael?

Does anyone know if ILM has soundstages at the Presidio?

 

Here's a story reporting Lucasfilm's official position. What Lucas is doing or not is complete speculation in any case, it seems.

And zombie, like McCallum said back in 2000: Right now digital is as bad as it will ever be. That's the bright side.

 

Very true, though I've been hearing that for a full decade now. If I was older, I would have been hearing that for two or three decades. Personally, I just don't understand the excitement over something that potentially could be as good as film but is currently and always has been far less; just doesn't make any sense. If people get that excited over digital then they should be having orgasms over 35mm.

I do look forward to the day when digital filming is aesthetically, practically and financially worthwhile though, don't get me wrong, and we're slowly heading there. But right now if it's just trading one format for another and if the new format is actually worse, and if the goal of the new format is to one day simply match the new one, then really what is the point in the end? We could have just stuck with film. Digital has a lot of meaning for low-budget independent stuff, but not really any for anything really professional. It will one day, but until that happens it doesn't have any real relevance so there really shouldn't be any big deal over it.

 

Maybe, but if no one pushed we'd never get anywhere.

 

So did they actually use this camera for Red Tails or just consider it?

 

It is my understanding that the camera was used for the recent re-shoots.

Adali-Kiri:

That's true. Even if the results at the time weren't really practical, people like Lucas have helped push the digital cinematography age ahead by a few years.

 

Lucas and Cameron were two high-profile filmmakers pushing that tech before any one else in their positions.

There were many low-budget filmmakers who did, but that was more of necessity because of cost.

 

Let's not forget Michael Mann. He's been pushing digital-video at least since "Ali" and his series "Robbery Homicide Division", and for the most part it seems that his infatuation with it is purely on aesthetic terms. He's certainly delivered some of the most beautiful non-celluloid images out there with "Collateal" and "Miami Vice". Jury's still out on "Public Enemies", but I thought it worked fine.

Soderbergh, too-- his stuff with the RED camera on "Che" was astounding.

 

Yep. Mann is another one. And he showed it wasn't just for spectacle filmmakers like Cameron and Lucas, but also for directors who delivered solid dramas.

This is not digital, but Last of the Mohicans is still a great old-fashioned war flick. And Russell Mean's battle axe:

 

A interview with Brian Cranston. Most of it discusses Breaking Bad, but the middle part of the interview does touch on Red Tails and John Carter of Mars.

Cranston talks Breaking Bad, Red Tails, and John Carter

 

Some official pics from the shooting of Red Tails.

Take a look at some planes, sets, and actors...and some greenscreen for the flight scenes.

Here: Red Tails behind the scenes

Pretty cool rigs they built for the planes.

Thx to Mike and tf.net main page for the heads up.

 

Those pics look cool. At least they've actually built replica planes....

George and Rick need to go on a diet.

 

Must be the mighty good catering.

 

Good lord, they're still doing reshoots/pickups here in norcal...local casting site just had a notice go up for actors needed to portrays captured Germans in a POW camp setting. Back in march they had a similar casting call go out too, but for allied soldiers as well. Evidence points to the reshoots being filmed in and around San Rafael. Rumors are that they are taking place on soundstages at Kerner Optical (the former practical effects dept. of ILM, now it's own company), but I personally suspect some outdoor scenes may be on the Ranch property itself (a la the cremation scene from RotJ.)

 

Yeah Kerner is being used for the insert cockpit shots and other reshoots.

You can see the stages in the Red Tails photos. Also, theyre listed on IMDB as the facility for the film's reshoots. Go to company listings on the Red Tail's page and there it is. Plus, the reshoot crew is filled with Kerner folks.

 

I just saw a current interview with Tristan Wilds just a few days ago and he seemed to confirm the film would indeed be out in December of this year. I have heard nothing on it here on the movie theater side of things. It is not present on our extended calendar of releases.

 

It's possible the film could be out by December. If it is released by the end of the year it may be a limited release only just so the film can be eligible for Oscar consideration. I think a good time for the film to open wide would be the end of January or early February. The Martin Luther King Jr. day weekend has, in recent years, become a good time the open a film. Given the subject matter it might be a good period to open the film in.

We'll see.

 

I never thought of that release schedule but that might be how it all goes down.

 

Is there a distributor?? Either way would love to see a trailer or something.

 

I found this pretty big update online from September 15th. Looks like it's been pushed back to 2011, and judging from the actor's "no comments", it sounds like the reshoots and post production have been in development hell.



Red Tails will be George Lucas's first original project since ending the Star Wars Saga in 2005 with Revenge of the Sith. George co-wrote the screenplay with John Ridley, and chose Anthony Hemingway, who has mostly worked in episodic television, to direct this rousing true-life tale of the Tuskegee Airmen. History hasn't been too quick to acknowledge this team of African-American fighter pilots, formally the 332nd Fighter Group of the U.S. Army Air Corps.

The film will trace the group's constant struggles throughout World War II, when the American military was still racially segregated and subject to Jim Crow laws, which prohibited black soldiers from fighting alongside white soldiers on the battlefield. In chronicling the Tuskegee Airmen's bomber escort missions in Europe, Red Tails will also provide George Lucas the opportunity to reenact some of the greatest aerial battles ever witnessed in history. It was these same aerial battles that influenced and shaped the many starship dog fights seen in the original Star Wars trilogy.

Red Tails won't be released until later next year, but we recently caught up with its young star Michael B. Jordan, who plays pilot-in-training Maurice 'Bumps' Wilson. Often called the Denzel Washington of his generation, Michael B. Jordan rose to prominence on Friday Night Lights and has recently joined the cast of Parenthood. He chatted with us about Red Tails, working with its all-star cast that includes Terrence Howard, Bryan Cranston, and Cuba Gooding Jr., the rumors swirling around those pesky reshoots, and what we can expect once the finished movie is in theaters.

Here is our conversation:

Can you tell us more about the character you play in Red Tails? There's not a whole lot of information about Maurice 'Bumps' Wilson out there...

Michael B. Jordan: I want to talk to you about Red Tails. But it's currently in post. There have been a lot of rewrites. We did a lot of reshoots. I am not sure, exactly, what the finished product is going to be right now. I play young flight officer Maurice Wilson. He is a Tuskegee Airman straight out of camp. He is straight out of flight training, he just got his wings, and he landed in Italy. He is a really young pilot, but he is eager to be a man. He is eager to fight. But he has a lot of learning to do. Some of the veteran pilots take him underneath their wing. They show him how it is done in a war. It's like a freshman going into college for his first semester. The upperclassmen take the freshmen under their wing. They show him the ropes. They try to make him feel comfortable. They want to make him feel like a part of the crew. That he is one of the boys in this war. Because we are out there by ourselves. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the Tuskegee Airmen and their journeys, but during the early 1940s, we didn't have any rights at all. They didn't want us over there. They didn't want African-Americans fighting in the war whatsoever. So we kept each other company. And we kept each other focused. For the war, we weren't actually allowed to engage in air-to-air combat. We weren't allowed to engage in any fighting, whatsoever. For the first six months, we were literally practicing, and dog fighting, and training. The first time that we went out on an actual mission, we were veterans. Because we'd been practicing for the first six months between ourselves. We weren't allowed to actually fly. Or see any of the action. When we first got action, that is how our reputation started to build up. We got known for our flawless missions because we were already pros by the time we stepped into a plane and actually saw live combat.

You say that the script changed. Did the entire storyline of the film shift its focus?

Michael B. Jordan: The story did change. It is a sticky situation. I wish I could be more elaborate about it. I don't k

 

I hate to say this, but given the number of problems the production has had to endure, I would be astounded if the final product ends up being any good.

 

Hogwash. The original Star Wars film had countless production problems, set backs, sandstorms, mud, funding cuts, reshoots in unintended locations, last-minute script changes, etc., and it should go without saying that it's one of the great films of all time. So did Spielberg's Jaws, and I'm sure there are many other examples that I simply don't know about.

Production set-backs =/= bad film.

 

There are always exceptions, but more often than not it's a bad sign. Hopefully I'm mistaken and the film turns out to be a smashing success.