[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

[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