A Follow Up Series To 'Band of Brothers' and 'The Pacific' Is In The Works!
In his first TV foray since winning an Emmy for True Detective and following with the Emma Stone-Justin Hill series Maniac, Cary Joji Fukunaga will direct the first three episodes of Masters of the Air, the Apple TV+ World War II epic limited series from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television and Tom Hanks & Gary Goetzman’s Playtone. This will also be his first directing assignment since helming the James Bond film No Time To Die,
The producers made a deal last October to bring to Apple TV+ the epic 10-episode adaptation of the Donald L. Miller book Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany. Fukunaga’s Parliament of Owls will join the producing roster.
For my money, 'Band of Brothers' is a top-5 series that HBO has ever made. The drama, writing, acting, and sheer immersion into the period is almost unmatched for any piece of WW2 media. I liked 'The Pacific' a lot as well, but not nearly as much. This news, however, is HUGE. Cary Fukunaga, who directed S1 of 'True Detective' as well as 'Beasts of No Nation', is a fantastic director and I cannot wait to see what he can do with this. Here is the base synopsis, also from Deadline:
Deadline hears that the series will span 10 episodes that will cost well north of $200 million to produce, telling a deeply personal story of the American and British bomber boys who brought the war to Hitler’s doorstep in WWII. Shooting is expected to begin next March in London.
The battles of the air during WW2 don't get as much shine as they deserve in recent movies and TV, especially considering the insanely crucial role the RAF and USAF played in paving the way in both operational theaters, not to mention the insane casualty rates they took. It took a lot of guts, especially early in the war when the Luftwaffe and IJAAS had superior equipment, to get up into the air knowing there was a decent chance you were getting shot down.