Warbird Information Exchange

Just a thought, but all seems to have gone very quiet about this mini-series. Word was said that it was to be released in 2017, but have heard nothing at all about it recently. Am just asking as the Company I work for (GateGuardsUK) builds replica airframes for films - P-40s and P-51s for Red Tails, Spitfires for Dunkirk and the Westland Lysander for Allied to name a few.

With the sort of work that we are involved in, we would have thought that we would have been asked to create models for this series. Surely it can't be all CGI?

Best wishes to all,

Martin

I heard a status update from the producer at a recent event in Virginia--It's still in the writing phase and It'll probably be a year or two out. Lots of stuff going on, but a lot still to do........

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Rod Schneider
Ball Ground, Ga

I've been hearing, "writing phase" for a long time now. I don't think Tolstoy took as long to write, "War and Peace!"
Same thing happened with the Pacific Series, it was supposed to be in the "writing phase" until suddenly rumors came out of Australia that it was being filmed. Very little info, even then. Only once the editing was going on did anyone finally admit what was going on there for that series.
I've been asking around among the bomber crowd and nobody either knows about what planes have been hired for the series, or they have confidentiality agreements. Either way, nobody's saying their bomber is taking part.
The only rumor I've heard about hardware is that the B-17 interior mockup from "Memphis Belle" has been (or will be) moved form Australia to the UK for filming on this series.

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

Thank you for your replies. Suppose we will have to sit back and wait for the phone to ring, or perhaps not ring. And then we might not be able to tell anyone about it.....we could be making P-47s and 51s now! I wish!

The Memphis Belle mock up was moved from Australia many years ago to California, My B-17 cockpit is available in the UK

I've reached out to the head writer for the series, John Orloff, on twitter a few times to ask him some questions about it and last I heard they're still working on the script. Updates I saw were that they did a preliminary scouting out in the UK last year and I believe they did veteran interviews (understandable to get those done as soon as possible)

I got a chance to meet with John last year, he's a terrific guy. It was definitely heartening to hear that both he and Tom Hanks are HUGE WWII nerds who are just as interested about the subject and doing it correctly as the majority of warbird and WWII enthusiasts. I have to say I was definitely impressed by how much research he'd done into the subject and how devoted he was. Even he was saying that, after writing Band of Brothers, he's confident that this series would even blow BoB out of the water. I've got a lot of faith in the project!

Finally some news, good. Not much has been released on this series. Considering how well received Band of Brothers was and with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks teaming up once again, you would think HBO would be more excited about the series and be forthcoming with progress to help build buzz about it until it is ready to be broadcast. Nope. Hopefully, the series will be as good as or better than Band of Brothers. Definitely high standards to meet. The guys in the air could use a good movie/series. I have not seen The Pacific. I have heard it is good, but not to the level of Band of Brothers.

I posted some news back in April 2017 on the series.

HBO's "The Mighty Eighth" series news - maybe
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=65135

The writing is really taking a long time. Flying did a story in the January 2015 issue when HBO announced it was doing the series.

Masters of the Air: Tribute to the Mighty Eighth
https://www.flyingmag.com/pilots-places ... hty-eighth

I heard a rumor that "A Higher Call" is to be made into a movie.

I hope to be very wrong about this, but all the same things were said about "The Pacific" when it was about the stage that this 8th AF series is at right now. And it just didn't go over nearly as well as Band of Brothers. Neither did the Iwo Jima epics directed by Eastwood around the same general time.
I contend that for the most part, people in the US somehow identify with the ETO more than the PTO these days.
Odd that you'd sing the praises of BoB, talk about how much you want to see this 8th AF series, but you've never seen "The Pacific" series? That was seven years ago!

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)