Apple TV + has recently announced that there is a project in the works for a new mini-series titled “Master of the Air.” The series is intended to be a follow-up documentary to the HBO series “Band of Brothers,” which was followed by “The Pacific.” World War II historians and enthusiasts have yet another powerful mini-series that chronicles aspects of the events that took place during that era coming up in the near future. Although it’s still early in development, here is everything that we know about “Masters of the Air” so far.
It’s a Speilberg, Hanks, Goetzman collaboration
According to Deadline, “Masters of the Air” is a collaborative effort by Steven Speilberg’s Amblin Entertainment, along with Gary Goetzman’s Playtone and Tom Hanks. They’ve signed on with Apple TV + in a deal that will offer the miniseries through its live streaming service. Although the original development of the project was for HBO, Apple TV + will have rights to streaming. The mini-series is based on a book written by Donald L. Miller titled “Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany.” This provides the theme that will be contained in teh episodes within the mini-series. There are plenty of seasoned collaborators on board with the project including John Orloff, of the “Band of Brothers” show who is writing the script for the series. The executive producers for the project are Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and Gary Geoetzman.
Exciting viewing is coming to Apple TV +
We’ve learned that the “Masters of the Air” mini-series is scheduled to join Apple’s lineup along with a reboot titled “Amazing Stories,” which is also a Spielberg project. This is anticipated to be an epic project upon completion and expectations are high for the series that will provide more than 8 hours of content with a budget of over $200 million. They’ve spared no expense in the creation of the new mini-series and if it comes close to the previous two projects “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific” it will be yet another Emmy award-winning mini-series. It’s safe to assume that it will because of the seasoned professionals who have joined forces to produce yet another project within the World War II genre that takes a look at the conflicts from yet one more perspective.
Theme and format
So far, we know that this is going to be a World War II mini-series that will be the third project for Hanks and Spielberg together and we base expectations of success on their previous two. There will be a total of 10 episodes which each last about 80 minutes. The series will focus on the 100th Bombardment Group stationed at Thorpe Abbots Airfield in World War II and will feature the aircrew and the ground crew involved. The storyline of the series will feature teh airmen who were captured and became POWs, as well as those who were killed and those who escaped capture through underground movements. Scenes from the POW camps will also be included. Information and facts about the French and Belgian Resistance who helped some of the downed airmen to escape, and we’ll learn more about the details of their journeys to British Gibraltar and escape to England.
The two major themes will discuss how the airmen dealt with the challenges both physically and mentally before, during and after the missions, and it will focus upon the uniqueness of air combat versus ground combat during World War II. It’s going to be a very real series that looks at the harsh realities of the war which means that there will be sensitive topics discussed as well as stories of some brutality and violent deaths. There will be violence, strong language and some of the content may be offensive to some viewers. It’s wise to be prepared for graphic and disturbing content. There will also be actual interviews with veterans and those who have first-hand knowledge of the events that took place during the war. The project is extremely complex and it’s taken a lot of research to pull together the facts and to document the stories included, according to Tweets posted by John Orloff.
Characters
From what we have learned so far, the stories of four main characters will be highlighted, with the interweaving of their stories throughout the length of the series. Each character in the series will be based on a real person who served in the war with no composite characters included. For each character, the actor attempted to talk with the veteran that they portray and in the event that the character is no longer living, they talked with family members or friends. So far, there has been confirmation that the main characters of the series will be Master Sergeant Kenneth A. Lemmons, a ground crew chief, and mechanic, Lt. Colonel Robert Rosenthal, pilot, a Red Cross girl who chronicled her experiences in a diary while with the 100th Bomb Group in England, and an unknown air crewman shot down and captured. Although the Red Cross girl is not likely to be one of the main characters in the series, her story is important as are the facts that she recorded.
When will “Masters of the Air” be shown?
Filming was scheduled to begin in 2019 and although the producers are keeping a tight lid on the progress, it is expected that the project will be completed and released for airing sometime towards the end of 2020, or possibly in the early part of 2021.
Final thoughts
This is what we know about the upcoming television mini-series “Masters of the Air” so far. It’s likely that as we move closer to the completion date there will be a trailer released. Although there is currently one out there, it’s not an officially sanctioned trailer and it has nothing to do with the upcoming project. For now, producers are keeping the rest of the process under tight wraps, but we’re confident that more information will be forthcoming in the near future.
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