"Red Tails" The Next George Lucas Production

Well, here's an update interview from an actress on the film. Sure to only add more fuel to the fire regarding the movie's authorship.

 

Yeah that's the first time we've had official confirmation that these reshoots were substantial enough to change "the tone of the film".

But:

Ruah(from interview): "Initially, it was directed by Anthony Hemingway, and then George Lucas wanted to change some of the tone of it and decided to direct it himself, so we had a few re-shoots and I got to work specifically with George Lucas on those re-shoots."



So she does say just a few reshoots to change some of the tone. And she says a few reshoots. But it's funny how she also says Lucas "decided to direct it himself".



I dont know what to think. I just hope the finished product is good and does justice to the subject matter or George should fire Rick and himself.

 

...yikes. I love George as a director, but this doesn't sound good at all.

 

Frankly, I think Lucas should've been directing this himself from day one. Maybe he hired another director for PC reasons; maybe he was doubting himself after the critical lashings of the PT, and didn't want the story of the Tuskegee Airmen to get caught in the crossfire. But honestly, I think he's a strong enough director to handle this story and its content himself with equal amounts substance and style. Hiring somebody else to write the actual screenplay was probably enough to iron out any potential kinks, but if he wanted somebody to help keep the performances up to par, he should've just gotten somebody to co-direct (as he originally wanted with TPM) and not try to direct with him standing over his shoulder (as happened with ESB, ROTJ and "Willow", to varying degrees). Still, I have faith in this project. It doesn't sound like the directorial differences are any worse than those between Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg on "Poltergeist", and there certainly isn't anything bad coming from Hemingway's camp so far (or anything at all-- I'd like to hear his take).

 

I wholeheartedly agree. When multiple directors approach a film without any sort of unifying vision, there is always the danger of having "too many chefs in the kitchen," which can compromise the integrity of the final product. As always, there are exceptions, but generally speaking it's a recipe for disaster.

 

If Lucas had decided to direct from the beginning, I would be overjoyed. I don't care what people say about the Prequels--the guy is a great artist.

But why hire a director only to crap all over his work and make a completely different movie? Hemingway can't be happy about this--I suspect he will speak out about this closer to the movie's eventual release, making for a PR disaster for Lucasfilm.

I also suspect that most of the pick-up shooting will look bizarre and completely out of place in the film. We've already seen it in Young Indiana Jones after their 1-hour-episode-to-2-hour-movie conversions, the OT with the special edition scenes, and also (to a much lesser extent) with the prequels with their fake beards.

 

I doubt that on a technical level the differences will even be noticeable-- first of all Lucas is using the exact same cast, crew and equipment that Hemingway had on the original shoot, while on the "Chronicles" and SE you had all kinds of differences, especially in the film stocks they were using. It'll be more unified on that level, so the only question will be if everything else will be so different (performances, mis-en-scene, pacing). At worst, I suspect it'll be like the theatrical cut of "Superman II", where you can sorta tell the Donner sequences from the Lester ones by their looks and tone, but not enough for most people in the audience to really care. And honestly, I think it'll turn out better than that. It all depends if Lucas is reshooting some, or all of Hemingway's footage-- if it's the former, it might be a mixed bag, but if it's the latter, then we really are talking a completely different film, and the worst that'll happen is some sort of "Prequel to the Exorcist"-style release of both versions.

Anyway, it used to be fairly common for old Hollywood films to have several directors (often uncredited) working on a picture at the same time under the auspices of an all-powerful producer. This was especially common for guys like Selznick and Alexander Korda. Lucas has been the same way (or at least tried to be) on some projects in the past.

 

I'm still very curious and hopeful for this project.

But I doubt the principal photography will differ much from the reshoots. After all, with the SW SEs, we are talking additions to 20 year old films. And Young Indy's extended shoots were years later.

Red Tails was in the same year.

I just hope Lucas hasn't completely lost his nerve. As Vlad said why have someone else direct if you're just going to step all over it anyway?

 

Selznick and Korda used that model to great success during their respective careers (even though Selznick's collaborations with Hitchcock - The Paradine Case, Rebecca, and Spellbound ? exhibit tension between the two strong-willed creative personalities). Alas, times have changed, and films with multiple directors who are not on the same wavelength are more likely to go the way of The Invasion or Supernova than The Wizard of Oz or The Thief of Bagdad. In any case, it's all speculation at this point, and I sincerely hope that Red Tails manages to overcome its numerous setbacks and fulfill its potential.

 

Yep, me too. I would be extremely grateful to see a modern-day George Lucas directed-film that isn't Star Wars. THX and Grafitti are excellent so there's no fundamental reason (with the right script) that Red Tails couldn't have been great under his sole-direction. I still kind of wish he'd done Apocalypse Now. He's a great visionary and I still think he'd produce fantastic, adult-themed, contemporary work. That said, Anthony Hemmingway is good, and his episodes of The Wire lead me to think he was a good choice for this particular film.

As things are, Lucas is forever going to remembered as Mr. Star Wars. As much of a great legacy that may prove, its no overall justice to the guy's ability. Its like Spielberg afer Jaws saying "thats it, I'm done with directing" and only ever making the occasional Jaws flick every ten years. Think of what we'd have missed out on and how less fondly we might think of Spielberg had that transpired. It wouldn't have meant he didn't have the talent - only the motivation. Likewise, while Lucas' motivation should certainly be questioned, his talent has been more than amply exemplified already. Could Lucas have done Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan to a similar standard as Spielberg? For my money, absolutely. Remember that when Spielberg first saw Lucas' work in the late 60's, he was unbelievably envious of the guy.

Here's hoping this stuff with Red Tails has inspired Lucas to say "y'know what, I'm just gonna do this myself from now on" and direct another few films before he retires. I'd have hoped he'd do so after ROTS but it appears, for whatever reasons, he hasn't yet felt compelled.

 

I'm slightly concerned but not too much. This is how Lucas works. He'll shoot, edit, rethink something, then shoot again. That's just how the man works. Plus since this is his own film, and his own money, he's not burden by any studio imposed release date. The film will be finished when he finishes it. I wouldn't be surprised if Lucas has the film 100% completed before he even takes it to a studio for distribution.

I think the biggest problem, which has always been Lucas' problem, is that he hire's a director so he doesn't have too but he ends up regretting it for whatever reason and realizes it would have been easier to just do it himself. He's then in the delicate position of bringing the film closer to his original vision without pissing off the director. It's got to be thought but that is the job of a producer.

 

I agree. It's clear now that the issue of the reshoots was something more than "always planned for it", but it's still hard to tell how much of a problem it's been. Maybe Lucas regretted not doing it himself to begin with, maybe he's off his rocker, or maybe Hemmingway simply messed up something crucial in the telling of the story.

 

While that is certainly a possibility, I think the odds favor Lucas changing his mind about some stuff rather than Hemingway messing things up.

 

I'm inclined to agree, but at the same time I can see the other possibility as well. Hemingway's background in television is largely on dramas like The Wire. He did direct a few episodes of Heroes, an effects-filled adventure program that I'm sure was part of the reasoning behind getting him. Perhaps Lucas changed his mind about what the movie should be through the production, thinking it needed drama-chops at the start. Who knows.

 

We will find out at some point what went down.

 

Put me down as another one that wishes Lucas had directed Red Tails himself. And in a way it seems he has, though of course we'll never know which part of the film was Lucas and which was Hemingway.

 

I've been asking around.

It seems the breakdown is basically this:

the aerial cockpit and battle scenes(shot at Kerner): directed by Lucas

the character-oriented,dialogue-driven story(basically the bulk of the movie): shot by Hemingway

insert scenes like a POW camp, etc(shot around Marin): directed by Lucas

 

I can't wait for this movie! And I don't think we'll ever know just which footage was directed by whom. But I've been waiting since the early 1990's to see this!

 

Wow. If that's the case, I'm surprised anybody's making such a big deal out of this.

 

Oh, well that really doesn't sound like such a big deal? Hmmmmm....

 

Well, we didn't really know the context in which the reshoots were taking place.

So it let our imaginations run wild with ideas the film was in serious trouble, Hemingway shot the wrong movie, Lucas was being fed CG through and I-V, etc.

But it sounds like it was always planned to have the action sequences directed by Lucas after they had the fx locked down, because Hemingway had scheduled a movie after shooting Red Tails.

So the really intense fx stuff was scheduled for Kerner's stages and was shot.

 

has anyone heard anything about this movie? release date? did George decide not to release?

 

Still in post at ILM.

 

That's interesting, I'm amazed it's still possible to keep a lid on the details of a movie like this. Dying for a trailer at this point.

 

this definitely gets the award for WORST marketed movie ever.... can't believe there's next to nothing about it on the net