I’m actually VERY excited about this news, and more than a little curious. Some of you will remember that a few weeks ago I wrote a post called “The Cause of George Lucas’ Fall, and How He Can Rise Again“. The basic idea was that Lucas was once thought of as a visionary, creative and dynamic filmmaker… but that creative visionaries need NEW ground to explore and play in to stay fresh and sharp. For 30 years George has basically just played in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones sand boxes and let his creativity grow stale. I suggested that we need to see Lucas get out of his rut and try something different… something new… something totally removed from Sci-Fi and Fantasy. And it looks like it’s coming.
George Lucas will be directing a movie based on the true story of The Tuskegee Airmen (the film will be called “Red Tails”, a reference to the color of the tails on their planes bomber pilots would know who was flying with them), a group of black pilots who fought in the American military during World War 2 as heroes… and yet were discriminated against at home because of the color of their skin. Yahoo News gives us this:
The black airmen whose lives will be the basis of a George Lucas movie know the picture will highlight their record of successfully escorting thousands of U.S. bombers in World War II. They also feel it should tell of the trials they encountered stateside, like seeing German prisoners of war being treated better and afforded rights that were withheld from black American citizens.
I remember hearing about this project a LONG time ago… but it looked like Lucas has let it just die. Apparently not! This sounds like an amazing project. There are so many themes and stories in here. Not only do you have all the deeper issues of race, fighting for a country that spits on you (sort of sounds like X-Men a little), but you also have high adventure and the potential for great arial action sequences too.
I have no doubt Lucas will once again leverage ILM to do a lot of the air battles… and I’m sure they’ll look fantastic… but I’m MUCH more interested in seeing how Lucas, once considered to be the prodigy of Hollywood and referred to as “The best director I’ve ever seen” by Steven Spielberg, handles the actual STORY TELLING and character development of this potential epic. This is a story that deserves a LOT of respect and attention… can Lucas give it that? Does he have it in him anymore? Can he get away from thinking of kids and light adventure fun? Honestly, I don’t know, but I am VERY interested in seeing how he does. Here’s hoping for the best!
