This is probably one WWII pic you haven’t heard of, though it’s been in the making for years and years. Red Tails is a George Lucas-produced actioner about the WWII Tuskegee Airmen, starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Bryan Cranston, and Terrence Howard. We now have the first trailer from Red Tails, and after years of development and re-shoots, the film will finally hit theaters on January 20, 2012.
The trailer doesn’t sweep me off my feet, but I’m not a war movie buff in general. What is really interesting about this movie is that it has been in development for over 20 years. Lucas co-wrote the script with John Ridley and they finally put the beast into production a few years ago with Anthony Hemingway directing.
Red Tails met with some controversy after re-shoots started happening without Hemingway (Lucas acted as director). Filmmakers maintained the re-shoots were only directed by Lucas because Hemingway was not available. Whatever the story may be, the film will finally get a release next year and audiences can see if it was worth the wait.
Here’s the synopsis and the trailer, what do you think?
1944. World War II rages and the fate of the free world hangs in the balance. Meanwhile the black pilots of the experimental Tuskegee training program are courageously waging two wars at once — one against enemies overseas, and the other against discrimination within the military and back home. Racial prejudices have long held ace airman Martin “Easy” Julian (Nate Parker) and his black pilots back at base — leaving them with little to do but further hone their flying skills — while their white counterparts are shipped out to combat after a mere three months of training. Mistakenly deemed inferior and assigned only second-rate planes and missions, the pilots of Tuskegee have mastered the skies with ease but have not been granted the opportunity to truly spread their wings. Until now.
As the war in Europe continues to take its dire toll on Allied forces, Pentagon brass has no recourse but to reconsider these under-utilized pilots for combat duty. Just as the young Tuskegee men are on the brink of being shut down and shipped back home, Col. A.J. Bullard (Howard) awards them the ultimate chance to prove their mettle high above. Undaunted by the prospect of providing safe escort to bombers in broad daylight — a mission so dangerous that the RAF has refused it and the white fighter groups have sustained substantial losses — Easy’s pilots at last join the fiery aerial fray. Against all the odds, with something to prove and everything to lose, these intrepid young airmen take to the skies in a heroic endeavor to combat the enemy — and the discrimination that has kept them down for so long.
