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HBO officially developing third WWII miniseries with Spielberg and Hanks.

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S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/hbo-developing-third-wwii-miniseries-413632

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

Joining an oeuvre that already includes 2001's Band of Brothers and 2010's The Pacific, 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. The project will use as its source material historian Donald L. Miller’s nonfiction tome Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany.

Spielberg, Hanks and Gary Goetzman again will serve as executive producers via Hanks and Goetzman’s Playtone and Spielberg’s Amblin Television. HBO executives have been in discussions about a third World War II miniseries for several months. Justified creator Graham Yost, who wrote several episodes of Brothers and Pacific, recently told The Hollywood Reporter that he was eager to reteam with Hanks and Spielberg on another WWII epic. And now that the source material has been optioned, the project can move into development. Additional source material might be added later.
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A

Amir0x

Banned
DMczaf said:
My mind read "HBO officially developing WWIII miniseries with Spielberg and Hanks" and I got excited.
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hah, so did I. I was like "wait that actually sounds like a neat idea!"

This is neat too, of course, but I'm just a bit more tempered after Pacific.
 
T

Tucah

you speak so well
Pacific was good but obviously nowhere near as fantastic as Band of Brothers. Looking forward to this.
 
D

Deadbeat

Banned
The Pacfic was all over the place. I know it was hard to get such memoirs of survivors in that part of the war to get a consistent story like BoB, but The Pacific was a huge disappointment.

Why dont we do a German side? I could go for that.
 
G

gamma

Member
Another WWII series is great but the Air Force story doesn't really sound that interesting to me. Should've gone with North Africa or something else.
 
G

ghst

thanks for the laugh
i definitely need another miniseries which explores the america's contribution in WWII. so sick of all those hackneyed shows which focus on (every other nation on the planet)'s perspective.
 
B

Borgnine

MBA in pussy licensing and rights management
Hope we get to see lots of firebombed civilians struggling to free themselves after walking in to molten asphalt. Should be awesome!
 
M

Mr.Awesome

Banned
Also interesting location choice. When I hear fighter planes, I would think the Pacific theatre is definitely where you go (though im not an expert). But the European theatre is more glorious and marketable and this may be the best story to tell anyways
 
I

I'M FINISHED!

Um exCUSE me Sakurai but CLEARLY the best choice for Smash Bros would be my fav niche character HOWEVER you are clearly INCOMPETENT and
WWIII needs to happen so we can finally get some fresh movies, video games, and books.
 
D

demon

I don't mean to alarm you but you have dogs on your face
Sheeit I've never even seen the first two. I've got some catching up to do.
 
E

Empty

Member
hmm. i wonder if this will tackle the evils of civilan bombing (haven't read the book)

i love band of brothers but it's a bit straightforward morally.
 
D

diamount

Banned
Empty said:
hmm. i wonder if this will tackle the evils of civilan bombing (haven't read the book)

i love band of brothers but it's a bit straightforward morally.
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Really? Did you forget that German general speech towards the end? And it's not like the US soldiers were painted in a good light mostly either, they show Spiers executing unarmed prisoners while giving them cigarettes, and in The Pacific they are torturing a Japanese soldier wanting to die.
 
S

sangreal

Member
Deadbeat said:
The Pacfic was all over the place. I know it was hard to get such memoirs of survivors in that part of the war to get a consistent story like BoB, but The Pacific was a huge disappointment.

Why dont we do a German side? I could go for that.
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I think that could be great, something like all quiet on the western front but ww2. I imagine it won't happen due to fears of romantacizing the German's actions
 
D

diamount

Banned
sangreal said:
I think that could be great, something like all quiet on the western front but ww2. I imagine it won't happen due to fears of romantacizing the German's actions
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As long as they only show them killing French, British or Russian soldiers it shouldn't be much of an issue lol
 
RangersFan

RangersFan

Member
awesome. as for the pacific I thought it was very good. i think people were most disappointed with the pacific because they compared it to BoB which can never be matched.
 
D

DrSlek

Member
I felt the Pacific wasn't as good because there was almost no interaction between the 3 protagonists. instead of having a single story about a squad or company, you have to try and keep up with 3 independent stories.
 
K

KillerMan91

Member
General Choomin said:
Another world war 2 America fest. Boring!
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As much as I would love to see for example german side or russian side in the eastern front (where the biggest sacrifices were made) I can't blame that american company makes series about americans to americans. Sadly film industries in other countries don't have money or in germanys case will to make similar kind of series.
 
7he Talon

7he Talon

Member
Very excited!
I don't know how I feel about this setting and the group they're following. Hopefully we can get the same depth of character connection, as we did in Band of Brothers. Hopefully because they're in planes doesn't disconnect us from them.

Edit: Just realised that these guys are bombers! That changes everything!
 
E

Empty

Member
diamount said:
Really? Did you forget that German general speech towards the end? And it's not like the US soldiers were painted in a good light mostly either, they show Spiers executing unarmed prisoners while giving them cigarettes, and in The Pacific they are torturing a Japanese soldier wanting to die.
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nope! i'm not saying it had zero moral ambiguity. there are those scenes - the german general is absolutely terrific - and a few others like that time they attack a german sentry when they're sleeping and lots of looting, but i'd say it's background details in something that's primarily focused on the bravery and courage of american soldiers against unbelievable hardship of war as they liberate the people of europe. (can't speak to the pacific because i haven't seen it yet)

it's great at doing that and it's a credit it's not complete in your face american propoganda but i'd love to see stories that focus on the more overtly morally complex and challenging aspects of what people had to do in the war. my main desire is is for a depiction of the eastern front with the production values of band of brothers, but an aerial one could fulfill this desire too and i hope that's something the series does.
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
DrSlek said:
I'm a bit disappointed. Very few WWII series ever focus on the North African theatre.
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Something focusing on Rommel, Montgomery and the El Alamein battles would just be fantastic. It has so much potential, especially with Rommel as a kind of tragic villain.
 
P

Passive Assassin

Member
Nice. Hopefully the story is more close knit until the Pacific, which was understandable since it was different people from different units. I'd be interested in what OSS people were doing in Burma and Southeast Asia during WWII. The North Africa idea sounds great, hopefully they do that in the future with the Italy campaign.
 
RangersFan

RangersFan

Member
DrSlek said:
I felt the Pacific wasn't as good because there was almost no interaction between the 3 protagonists. instead of having a single story about a squad or company, you have to try and keep up with 3 independent stories.
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that's the complaint i keep reading. the pacific is independent stories from different source materials. i think what made people love BoB so much was it followed one company through the war and was based mainly on one source material, stephan ambrose's BoB, which used first hand accounts and source materials like dave webb's book.
 
K

KnightAttack

Member
RangersFan said:
awesome. as for the pacific I thought it was very good. i think people were most disappointed with the pacific because they compared it to BoB which can never be matched.
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The more times I watch the Pacific, the more I like it. The first time through, it felt super scattered, as there was just so many characters involved and so much hopping back and forth as compared to BoB's, where every episode surrounded one character.

However, the more times I've watched it now, the more I enjoy this because you can see all of these independent activities and how they each affected each other.

I don't mean to say it is a good as Band of Brothers, but it's a high quality show. I look forward to a new one again. It is such an enriching story to look at, I can help but wait to see what they come up with next...and maybe more importantly who will be acting in it next.
 
TDLink

TDLink

Member
Fine by me. The Pacific was still great even if it didn't touch Band of Brothers (let's be honest though, that's a pretty hard feat to do). Totally ready to see a third series.
 
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