2019 feels like a decade ago for countless reasons (some more obvious than others), but that was when we first heard about Masters Of The Air from Apple TV+. The world has since gone chaotic and most recently into two Hollywood strikes, but finally, incredibly promising details are upon us. To briefly recap, this limited series will hail from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television along with Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman’s Playtone. The project arrives over two decades after Hanks and Spielberg brought their first World War II-inspired limited series, Band of Brothers, to HBO in 2001. They later followed up with The Pacific in 2010, and the third time might be an even bigger charm.
At least, the leading man and his supporting players promise enormous performances. Oscar winner Austin Butler has stopped Elvis-ing it up for this project, and he will be joined by BAFTA winner and Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan. The cast further includes Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle, Nate Mann, and Ncuti Gatwa, and here’s a peek at the ensemble in action:
The story will draw heavily upon Donald L. Miller’s book, Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany, and Apple TV+ looks to be pushing further towards streaming supremacy in its own right with this project. As Apple TV+ announced this week, this limited series will follow “a true story of brotherhood and American airmen in WWII Europe. Here’s a blast from the past via Deadline:
The book tells the story of the American bomber boys in WWII who brought the war to Hitler’s doorstep. It becomes the first series greenlit with Apple serving as the studio as the company is joining major streamers like Netflix and Amazon, which also produce and own content. Deadline hears that the miniseries will be more than eight hours in length, and that it will cost well north of $200 million to produce.
That $200 million figure was reported to be accurate back in 2019, and in a time of inflation, god only knows how much producers have invested in this project. It should be a hell of a ride.
Masters of the Air will stream on January 26, 2024.
(Via Deadline & Apple TV+)