George Lucas’ Red Tails Trailer
If, like most people, you have lost all confidence in George Lucas in a filmmaker, here is something that just might restore a little bit of that lost faith. For years now we have been hearing about a passion project of his called Red Tails, a WWII film about the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American pilots who overcame prejudice to fight for their country. Now it looks like the movie will finally be hitting theatres early next year, and Yahoo! has the first trailer to prove it.
The cast includes Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Bryan Cranston, Ne-Yo and Method Man, among others, and while the action looks decent, it feels very earnest in its exploration of WWII-era racism. The good news is that Lucas didn’t actually direct the movie… at least not entirely. Anthony Hemingway (CSI: NY, Treme) was the man behind the camera for most of the shoot, although he could not return for reshoots last year and it seems safe to assume that Lucas himself took over. The movie is being released in January, which is usually not a good sign, but overall the trailer does look promising. What do you think, does George Lucas have a decent post-Star Wars career ahead of him after all? Red Tails hits theatres on January 20th, 2012; hit the jump to watch the first trailer now.
Comments (19)
Going by the trailer:
Nice visuals, predictable plot yet still interesting enough to warrant a watch.
Will look it up when it comes out..
Posted by Ping-Pong on July 29th, 2011It looks like it’ll be a pretty good, fun flick. A couple of nits to pick; famous stars pretty much ruin my ability to suspend disbelief in a film about historical events, I prefer unknown actors, and I can already tell that the script is going to be kinda cheesy, with grandiose speechifying and actors lines that seem too contemporary in their perspective and attitude to be realistic. So I think it’ll be a cheesy but earnest feel-good flick with slick, polished big budget Hollywood effects. Whether the actors can find it within themselves to push through the script and give an authentic somewhat realistic performance remains to be seen..
Posted by photonboy on July 29th, 2011Looks like shit. How long has this guy been away, and this is the best he can produce? Has he ever made a good movie – except A New Hope, which basically was expected to be a catastrophe even by him, the only reason it did good?
Posted by Jason on July 29th, 2011The action sequences look like they could be fun to watch, but other than that… yawn.
Posted by Matt on July 29th, 2011During the action sequences, I was expecting a cut to that X-wing pilot with the blood dripping from his nose going, “Wow, that got ‘em!” Dialogue is right out of a Stars Wars movie!!!
Posted by Dynamo on July 29th, 2011THIS is his passion project… Did he still his passion from the mutated child of Spike Lee and Tyler Perry?
There was nothing that stood out as original or inspired in any way in this trailer. Just lame.
Posted by Bocuma on July 29th, 2011I doubt it’ll be anywhere near as good as ‘The Tuskegee Airmen’, an outstanding TV movie that covered the same story and also starred Cuba Gooding Junior.
Posted by Gerry on July 29th, 2011Clearly all the dog fight choreography was stolen from Star Wars
Posted by David on July 29th, 2011While the Lucasfilm part makes me nervous. This trailer has peaked my interest. Also this is much different than Star Wars with a tie to actual history, even if it might be tweaked. Anthony Hemingway as the director is a plus too. I think some people just love to hate lucas but time will tell.
Posted by Big Hungry on July 29th, 2011What a snooze.
Posted by KeithTalent on July 29th, 2011I like the airplane stuff but the rest looks pretty dull
Posted by Niklas on July 30th, 2011Looks badass
Posted by Mark on July 30th, 2011As a military historian, I have several “nits to pick” (to borrow from photonboy).
Posted by Kevin on August 1st, 2011a) In the early formation sequence, it showed the fighters flying IN the bomber formation! Never happened! Fighters flew above (Top Cover) the formations and had to “zig-zag” as their speed was much faster than the bombers they were protecting.
b) The “New fighters” that are requested, and delivered, are the wrong model of P-51. The original P-51s flown were the “razorback” model “C”, not the bubble canopy.
c) The B-17’s tails have the Triangle-L tail markings for the 8th AAF and the 381st Bomber Group – which flew out of England. The Tuskegee Airmen flew with the 15th AAF in the Med. (African & Italy)
d) The 15th also had more B-24s than B17s, so to show all the sequences with B-17s is very inaccurate. Also, by this time in the war, ALL bombers (and fighters) were delivered without paint (because of the weight of the paint). The bombers would have been NMF – Natural Metal Finish.
e) No bomber pilot would have put out a “Mayday” during a bombing mission/run. Sorry, but there were too many aircraft flying in (somewhat) close proximity to each other to allow for voice communication like that. (Messages meant for the base were sent in Morse Code.) Each Group Commander would use the short range voice radio to talk to his group.
and finally
f) Let’s not mention the plausibility of P51s chasing (and keeping up with) Me-262s through the middle of a bomber combat box as well as strafing some unknown circa 1916 battleship and blowing it to pieces.
I can only imagine the “nits” that will be “picked” once this actually hits the theaters! I agree that the previous “Tuskegee Airmen” movie will be / is a more accurate portrayal.
You did the American I’ll do the German. The 109s actually look good. No Spanish built Bouchons. I see a JG3 Udet Falcon but what is that SS Death Head doing on there. I’m pretty sure no Jagdgeschwader “fighter wing” ever had a death head symbol as their insignia. Also the white on the tails around the swastikas is really weird.
JG1 JG2 JG3 JG4 JG5 JG6 JG7 JG11 JG26 JG27 JG50 JG51 JG52 JG53 JG54 JG77 JG300 Look those up and see if you can see a death head insignia on a 109.
Posted by Richie on November 5th, 2011http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1152516
Aswered
Posted by Richie on November 5th, 2011JG 7 did lose 3 jets on that day. 262s were much faster than the bombers and did not throttle back for attack, usually from the rear of the formation. Several jets were lost in the fireballs of exploding bombers during the war. I have no info as to how the P-51s were able to catch the jets on this occasion. Does anyone know if any of the 262 Project replicas were used in the filming?
Posted by Don on January 7th, 2012I thought Chuck Yeager was the only pilot know to down a jet in a prop friend airplane. And he admitted that it was luck that he caught it in a vulnerable situation.
Could have sworn that unread that in his autobiography. Am I wrong?
Posted by Jrod on January 7th, 2012Several jets were shot down by P-51s,usually on take-off and landing There were 28 German jet aces.
I was surprised that intercepts by a dozen 262s were possible in early 1945. Don
Posted by Don on January 8th, 2012Just saw this today (01/20/2012) and was disappointed.
Posted by Stephen on January 21st, 2012Digital reenactment of air combat not realistic nor was
the ship exploding while under attack by lone P51. It also conveys the idea that these men were thrill seekers
and not professional soldiers as they were. I don’t know
what the goal was in producing this movie but it is lack-
ing in several areas that would translate it from ho-hum
to believable.
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