Did you know HBO and Tom Hanks are teaming up once again to make a companion series to Band of Brothers?
Happy Memorial Day!
The Mighty Eighth follows the heroics of WWII pilots:
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I am not sure when the name change happened and why we missed it but, MASTERS OF THE AIR , the WWII companion piece to BAND OF BROTHERS and THE PACIFIC, is now officially titled THE MIGHTY EIGHTH. Let’s take a moment to realize what we can gain about the production due to that title change.
The project, from Playtone Productions, was quickly given the name “Masters of the Air” because it was announced early that the source material for the project was a non-fiction account of the same name by Donald Miller. Though it is a commanding title it is a rather vague one. Now with the name changed to THE MIGHTY EIGHTH there is no mistake who is getting honored here with a film. If you remember the two prior films in this WWII epic they took different approaches in telling their story. BAND OF BROTHERS was not about the U. S. Army in general, but of a specific unit and of the intense service that one unit gave for the cause. Where THE PACIFIC was more of a collection of events focusing on a handfulmighty8th_patch of servicemen illustrating what the war in the Pacific Theater was like. This third upcoming miniseries, now made more evident by its title change, will take the same angle as BAND OF BROTHERS; it will focus on one squadron and one set of characters through its chronicled heroic missions. It will be a great companion to the other two miniseries.
Lately there has been a little bit of buzz that this production is finally getting underway. Just think for a moment, however, how monumental a project this is. The production team needs to lock down locations, muster together historically accurate costumes and equipment, build, borrow or rent war weapons and vehicles and coordinate a cast and crew of hundreds. A number of sites including this one state that the project will cost $500 million dollars which is quite a lofty price for a TV project.
Now here is something interesting. Though it has been sort of vague exactly what this video clip is the main consensus is that it is a trailer that Playtone Productions used as a concept idea to pitch to HBO. Okay, but after Playtone’s proven track record with the other two miniseries did it really have to try to sell THE MIGHTY EIGHTH that hard?
Now, understand before you see this video. This is not a scene in the movie or actors necessarily involved in the TV event. This is a network pitch, a special effect test or even totally unrelated footage to the upcoming HBO miniseries. In any case it does set the tone for the type of scene we can expect in this depiction of the masters of the air and their confrontation with the Luftwaffe.
Very awesome! I loved Band of Brothers but wasn't that big of a fan of The Pacific. Maybe I need to give it a second watch, it's been years since I've seen it. But I'll definitely be looking forward to this!
I also loved Band of Brothers but thought the Pacific was pretty weak.
I hope this is more like Band of Brothers and it makes me happy to hear tha t it will take more of an "angle" like BOB did
Love Band of Brothers, the bluray set is awesome. It will get repeated viewings over the years.
The Pacific was a disappointment. Maybe I expected Band of Brothers part 2. I only saw it once but after reading a lot of reviews I'm going to give it another viewing, see if I like it better.
Jazzed to hear about the new series.
If any of you have never watched band of brothers, you can watch it for free if you have amazon prime. It's pretty much the greatest WW2 movie (series) ever created.
Hugh Ambrose, Historian Who Wrote ‘The Pacific,’ Dies at 48
Hugh Ambrose, a writer whose best-selling World War II history, “The Pacific,” was the companion volume to the Emmy Award-winning HBO mini-series of the same name, died on Saturday in Helena, Mont. He was 48.
The cause was cancer, his sister Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs said.
A son of the popular historian Stephen E. Ambrose, the younger Mr. Ambrose began his career as a researcher on his father’s books, including “Band of Brothers,” the blockbuster that followed members of the 101st Airborne through the European theater. That book was adapted as an HBO mini-series in 2001.
Father and son had begun work on “The Pacific” together; after Stephen Ambrose’s death from cancer in 2002, Hugh assumed authorship of the book and served as the historical consultant on the television series. Published by New American Library, “The Pacific” chronicles the region’s major battles — including Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Okinawa — through the lives of five United States servicemen.
The 10-part mini-series, broadcast in 2010 and starring Joe Mazzello, James Badge Dale and Jon Seda, offered a fictionalized rendition of those events. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks were executive producers, as they had been on “Band of Brothers.”
“The Pacific” won eight Emmys, including the award for outstanding mini-series.
Hugh Alexander Ambrose was born on Aug. 12, 1966, in Baltimore, one of three children that his mother, the former Moira Buckley, brought to her marriage to Stephen Ambrose in 1968. Mr. Ambrose adopted all three children, and the family settled in New Orleans.
After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from the University of Montana, Hugh Ambrose went to work for his father, researching “Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West” (1996) and other books.
For the World War II histories, he scoured archives, visited battlegrounds and interviewed a spate of veterans.
“I don’t know where he finds these guys,” Stephen Ambrose, speaking of his son, told The New York Times in 2002. “Then he gets on the phone with them for three or four hours, and that stuff is gold to me.”
In the same interview, Stephen Ambrose, who had weathered public accusations of plagiarism for insufficiently identifying passages from other writers that were used in his own work, said his son had no involvement with the disputed material.
Hugh Ambrose, a former vice president of the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, was also the historical consultant on “Price for Peace,” a 2002 documentary about the Pacific theater produced by Stephen Ambrose and Mr. Spielberg.
Besides his sister Ms. Tubbs, Mr. Ambrose’s survivors include his wife, the former Andrea Loiacano; two brothers, Barry and Andrew; another sister, Grace Ambrose-Zaken; a son, Brody; and a daughter, Elizabeth. At his death, he was a resident of Helena.
In an interview with The Wisconsin State Journal in 2012, Hugh Ambrose recalled the day his father asked him to become his research partner, and the irresistible inducement the older man held out to him.
“There was a pause and he said the magic words ... I’ll pay you,” Mr. Ambrose said. “And of course I said yes.”
Looks like we missed some news on Masters of the Air, looks like it is coming in 2015!
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Although it’s been some time since this purported project began, news outlets have been reporting that HBO is in fact making headway on its rollout of “Masters of the Air.”
Flying Magazine claims that the budget for the miniseries is $500 million—more than seven times that of Saving Private Ryan. This would allegedly make “Masters” one of the most expensive television projects in history.
Flying also reported that the heart of the series will focus on the “Bloody Hundredth” bomb group. The nickname comes from the group’s heavy World War II losses; by mid-1943, the Bloody Hundredth became a special target of the Luftwaffe, and sustained consistently high casualties. (Throughout the war, there were several instances in which the men sustained over a dozen losses on a single bombing mission.)
Over the Mountain Journal reports that the series is expected to be released in late 2015.
Can a Mod please change the topic to HBO: Masters of the Air
That's great news if it does release this year. Pile that on top of The Walking Dead (I'm a big fan, I'm not even the slightest bit sorry), Ash vs. Evil Dead, and Supernatural (still not sorry), it's going to be a great last half of the year for television.
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HBO's The Mighty Eighth
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