[NEWS] Masters of the Air

[thrillingdetectivetales]

As I’m sure everyone has figured out by now, I’m a bit of a fan of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, and as such have set up a Google Alert for any news about Masters of the Air. Most of the notices so far have been re-hashes of the same base information we already know—Masters of the Air will be the third installment of Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's HBOWar trilogy and is based on a book of the same name—but television news blog TVOverMind really came through for me this morning with some additional information.

Here's what they had to say about the show's theme and format:

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 [the] 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.

And here's what they had to say about characters and air dates:

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 ["Rosie"] 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.

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.

Y'ALL I'M VERY EXCITED!!!

* This is only my personal speculation, but based on what little I've read of the book so far, dollars to doughnuts the "air crewman shot down and captured" is either Maj. "Buck" Cleven or his bestie for life Capt. John Egan unless Hanks and Spielberg are trying to get real weird and unpredictable with their character choices.

Comments

[sailorkitty]

Aeroplanes! AEROPLANES!!!! *faints* Based on that information alone, it seems very very awesome :) I can't wait to see it!

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Right!? It's gonna be so goooood!

[scandalinbohemia]

The Red Cross girl is "Rosie"'s night persona (God, he doesn't even need a nickname) when he wears his gown and hits certain bars...

[chanter1944]

I am so very glad I wasn't drinking anything when I read this comment! I would've very likely splurted it everywhere, and as I'm currently under a quilt, that wouldn't have gone well.

*falls over in a fit of slightly scandalized giggles!*

[scandalinbohemia]

Hihihi, I aim to please :D

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Fio, you cannot get me writing fic for a show that isn't even out yet!!!

[scandalinbohemia]

Can't I? *wags eyebrows*

[yourlibrarian]

Well if it's of the same quality, I'd definitely be interested in seeing it.

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Hopefully it will be! Or, dare I wish, maybe even better, considering what we can manage with special effects nowadays and how much of the show could potentially entail in-air dogfights.

[sparrowfart]

God I’ve been waiting for this series for actual years now, and finally!! Updates!! Progress!! Thank you for sharing!!

[thrillingdetectivetales]

You're so very welcome!!!!

I'm deeply, deeply excited for it.

[muccamukk]

That all looks very promising. I hope there's not too much torture in the Resistance parts. That was very hard to read in The Lost Airman. I wonder what they'll do with the combat fatigue angle. The bomber squadrons were hit pretty hard with that, especially before fighter support.

[thrillingdetectivetales]

I'm super curious to see what the narrative structure is going to be like overall. The Pacific got a little closer to addressing the combat fatigue thing than Band of Brothers in terms of the overall aftermath of the experience but it would be nice to see it explored a bit more in-depth from a character perspective.

*quietly bitter that there wasn't more discussion of Buck's whole Thing and the recovery thereof*

[muccamukk]

The relevant Gregory Peck movie in case you were wondering! is Captain Newman, M.D., which is about the mental hospital in the US dealing with combat fatigue in the bomber group.

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Damn, Gregory Peck is really just out here delving into the intricacies of the bomber boys during the Second World War from every feasible angle, isn't he?

[muccamukk]

He also does Mosquito pilots with PTSD, to shake things up a bit.

[chanter1944]

French and Belgian Résistance, eh? *ears perk waaaaaay the heck up* Ooh! :D!

[thrillingdetectivetales]

I'm very excited to (hopefully) get some actual screen time with resistance fighters! They touch on it so briefly in BoB and it'll be cool to explore it a little more in-depth.