There’s An Amazing Trailer Out For A WWII Film About The Flying Fortresses, Except That Film Doesn’t Exist…

Rob Fox10 years ago

There’s a trailer out for a war film called The Mighty Eighth. Set during World War II, it follows the exploits of the B-17 bomber squadrons in the Army’s Eighth Air Force in 1942 Europe. It’s a month old, but admittedly, I had not seen it until today. As a huge war film fan, I was blown away by the trailer and surprised I had missed it up until now. Before I go any further, you should probably just watch it.

Pretty badass, right? Naturally, my first inclination was to head over to IMDb and see who was involved in the project which, judging by the polish of that trailer, must be at the very least in the middle of production if not nearly finished with post. When I got to IMDb, however, I ran into a curious problem. There was no page for The Mighty Eight. I searched and searched and searched, and as much I appreciated IMDb’s suggestion that I peruse the D2: The Mighty Ducks page as a consolation prize, I needed to find out more about this movie.

An initial Google search yielded mostly stuff about the actual Mighty Eighth Air Force. After refining my search, I found an article in The Hollywood Reporter dated about a year ago, detailing a project dealing with the Eighth Air Force, the contents of which gave me an Ameri-boner that nearly exploded.

HBO confirmed Friday that it is developing a third World War II miniseries from Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

…

the untitled miniseries will explore the aerial wars through the eyes of enlisted men of the Eighth Air Force — known as the men of the Mighty Eighth

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

I ran back to IMDb to look at the pages for Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. Maybe the project was still untitled or something. I had to confirm this potentially glorious news.

Again, nothing. Nothing even close. HOW COULD STEVEN SPIELBERG HAVE TWO TINTIN PROJECTS LISTED AND NOTHING ABOUT THIS!?!?! DAMMIT!

Once more I went back to Google, praying to white Jesus, who I assume loves HBO as much as all other white people do, that this project was real. I mean, it had to be real. There’s a whole, intense, well-crafted trailer for it! PLEASE BE REAL! IS THIS A SICK JOKE!?!

Then, finally, I found what I believe is the actual answer to this weird movie mystery, via an article on JoBlo, and a bittersweet one at that.

The footage was put together by Hydraulx, the special effects company formed by Greg & Colin Strause (SKYLINE, TAKE SHELTER). The film has yet to be shot with the script out to cast and making its debut at AFM, so this is a unique peek at not only the proposed film, but how it’s being sold in the early stages.

…

THE MIGHTY EIGHTH was written by Kurt Johnstad (300, 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE, ACT OF VALOR) and is produced by David Hoberman (THE FIGHTER, THE PROPOSAL), Todd Lieberman (THE FIGHTER, THE PROPOSAL) and Greg & Colin Strause, with director Rick Jacobson (BITCH SLAP, Starz Spartacus: War of the Damned) taking the helm.

This teaser footage is what you would call a “concept trailer.” It’s meant to sell the idea of the film, which apparently hasn’t been sold as of yet, though there is a script of sorts.

It’s disappointing that this isn’t another Spielberg/Hanks miniseries for HBO, because Band of Brothers and The Pacific are nothing short of incredible, but the proposed crew behind The Mighty Eighth still looks pretty solid. If they made that trailer, there’s hope.

One interesting thing to note, by the way, is that they totally poached the, “Mama! MAMAAAAA!” line straight from Saving Private Ryan, as in that’s the same audio.

[via The Hollywood Reporter, JoBlo]