George Lucas and the Red Tails

[davidmash]

Lucas was a guest on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show on Monday and said it took him 23-years to find someone to finance his film Red Tails, about a group of African-American pilots who fought in World War II.

“It’s because it’s an all-black movie. There’s no major white roles in it at all…I showed it to all of them and they said nooooo. We don’t know how to market a move like this.”

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I remember seeing the TV movi about the red tails that got me interested and I started reading a bit about the. I'm going to go see the movie. Lucas said if the numbers are good he will make the pre-quel and the sequel. I hope he does.

[Can't Know]

George isn't exactly broke, I wonder why he didn't fund it or at least put together an LLC to produce it.

But if they can figure out how to market the mass crap-filled bucket represented my most of Hollywood "cinema," they should be able to market Red Tails.

[Hatterasguy]

The Tuskegee Airmen are very well publicized and recognized at this point, I can't imagine it was hard to get a movie made about them.

I wonder if the movie is any good or falls short?

[davidmash]

Actually Lucas did finance it him self at least that is what I have read.

[Ara T.]

The trailer looked fairly hokey. Like Bad Boys meets WW2.

[cmac2012]

At the risk of uttering sacrilege, I'm not sure Lucas is all that any more. He's almost a one-hit wonder. The last 3 of the Star Wars were a bit shaky.

[Air&Road]

Thanks for posting this David. I am really shocked that he had trouble financing it. I very much enjoyed "Tuskegee Airmen" which was very well done and was a story about the same group of P51 pilots.

I never follow the stuff about which movie makes the most money at the box office, but "Tuskegee Airmen" was such a great movie that I just assumed that it was a box office smash hit. I am REALLY anxious to see Red Tails.

As a side note, almost three years ago when my Dad was starting into all his medical complications, I was at the hospital one morning before one of his surgeries. I saw this little elderly black man walking along toward the surgery prep area and he was wearing a Tuskegee Airman cap.

After the family and I got my Dad settled in I was in the hall headed for coffee and saw the gentleman again. He was obviously not feeling well and moving along quite slow with a woman apparantly his wife. I said "Sir, were you one of the Tuskegee Airmen?" He stood up straight and gave me a huge smile of pride and said "no, but I was among the ground crew." I said "well sir, then that makes you one of the Tuskegee Airmen." This made him stand up even straighter and smille even bigger. I thanked him for his service and he seemed to walk away in a more sprightly fashion than when I first saw him.

I was honored to get to shake the hand of one of these heroes, and it was really satisfying to help this man brighten his apparantly tough day.

[pj67coll]

Originally Posted by Ara T.

The trailer looked fairly hokey. Like Bad Boys meets WW2.

I was thinking something similar. The effects are all cgi which has the potential to provide for excellent historical accuracy, but some of the air combat sequences looked really comic book to me. I'll still probably see it though. Hope it's a good one.

- Peter.

[Air&Road]

I'm sorry to hear that it might not be a well done movie. I also will be seeing it anyway.

[MTI]

Originally Posted by pj67coll

I was thinking something similar. The effects are all cgi which has the potential to provide for excellent historical accuracy, but some of the air combat sequences looked really comic book to me. I'll still probably see it though. Hope it's a good one.

- Peter.

Lucas' joking aside, that the movie was filmed in the 40s' . . . the movie audiences of today are expecting CGI and all the bells and whistles that Skywalker Ranch can do so well. In addition, the story and the underlying themes of patriotism in the face of racial segregation and civil injustices, is what can take an average effects movie to something more.

[MS Fowler]

My question upon seeing the trailers, " How will this be any different from the Tuskegee Airman"? Is this a different story, or a remake of the same story? Having said that, I will probably go if only for the air combat scenes.

[Air&Road]

Originally Posted by MTI

Lucas' joking aside, that the movie was filmed in the 40s' . . . the movie audiences of today are expecting CGI and all the bells and whistles that Skywalker Ranch can do so well. In addition, the story and the underlying themes of patriotism in the face of racial segregation and civil injustices, is what can take an average effects movie to something more.

Great point! It doesn't necessarily take lots of fancy video if the story is good. These were some great people doing their part in a really tough war.

[TylerH860]

I'll see it, and look for the Jar Jar Binks type character Lucas puts in all of his movies.

[jplinville]

Originally Posted by TylerH860

I'll see it, and look for the Jar Jar Binks type character Lucas puts in all of his movies.

Just look for the duck...

[Graplr]

My wife's work partner's father was one of the actual Tuskegee Airmen. He is still alive. I'm not sure his exact age but I think somewhere around 90. Can't be too many of the pilots left alive.

We will definitely be seeing it as well.