This is a fairly interesting article by the NYT describing some of Lucas's design approach for this movie, and how he's ended up at the point where he is now.
Red Tails (IMDB)
NYT Article
It seems he completed the filming, and when trying to source a company to provide distribution, 8/9 firms turned him down, and the 9th didn't show up to the screening. It's likely not the subject matter that put them off, as it's been done before, 17 years ago, also with Cuba Gooding Jr.
By the article (haven't seen the film yet), Lucas appears to have taken a somewhat prequel/Indy 4 approach to the film.
I felt this described fairly well my opinion on the prequel movies, that there could have been an alternate path to bring kids in, rather than aim for kids with a ricochet for adults:
[LEFT] Still, he wasn’t sure Lucas was taking this film in the right direction. “I always felt it was much more of a mature film,” Hemingway said. “I felt if you’re going after kids, you have to go through the back door.” But Lucas persuaded him that if they made “Red Tails” as a kids’ picture, at some primal, emotional level, they would connect with the adult fanboys. [/LEFT]
And this made me chuckle:
So Lucas focused on the middle chapter: the dogfights and the Nazi-hunting black pilots who shout, “How you like that, Mr. Hitler!” (When I mention Lucas’s naïve style to Michael Bay, the director of the “Transformers” movies, he says sympathetically, “That’s what I get crap for from my critics.”)
[LEFT] [/LEFT]
Red Tails (IMDB)
NYT Article
It seems he completed the filming, and when trying to source a company to provide distribution, 8/9 firms turned him down, and the 9th didn't show up to the screening. It's likely not the subject matter that put them off, as it's been done before, 17 years ago, also with Cuba Gooding Jr.
By the article (haven't seen the film yet), Lucas appears to have taken a somewhat prequel/Indy 4 approach to the film.
I felt this described fairly well my opinion on the prequel movies, that there could have been an alternate path to bring kids in, rather than aim for kids with a ricochet for adults:
[LEFT] Still, he wasn’t sure Lucas was taking this film in the right direction. “I always felt it was much more of a mature film,” Hemingway said. “I felt if you’re going after kids, you have to go through the back door.” But Lucas persuaded him that if they made “Red Tails” as a kids’ picture, at some primal, emotional level, they would connect with the adult fanboys. [/LEFT]
And this made me chuckle:
So Lucas focused on the middle chapter: the dogfights and the Nazi-hunting black pilots who shout, “How you like that, Mr. Hitler!” (When I mention Lucas’s naïve style to Michael Bay, the director of the “Transformers” movies, he says sympathetically, “That’s what I get crap for from my critics.”)
[LEFT] [/LEFT]
