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It's Time to Kick the Tires and Light the Fires with War Birds!

by Ethan Anderton
December 6, 2009

Never since Top Gun has a film captured the pure adrenaline rush and intensity of fighter jet air combat. Sure sequences in films like Pearl Harbor and Independence Day have been fantastic in themselves, but an entire film has never come close to director Tony Scott's energy rush in the sky. That might all change as THR reports TMU Pictures is moving forward with a Michael Chait directed action-adventure film War Birds, the story of an Air Force veteran-turned-reckless airshow re-enactment pilot as he gets pulled into the underground culture of illegal, real-life aerial combat. It's like The Fast and the Furious but with jets!

The script was written by Josh Staman and Bryan Binder but writers J. Todd Harris (Bottle Shock) and Richard Jefferies (Tron Legacy) will be polishing the script and also producing this. And while you might think that this will simply be a lot of impressive CG and green screen work, shooting will use real airplanes and aerial sequences, including authentic P-51 Mustangs, P-38 Lightnings, F4U Corsairs and a B-17 Flying Fortress as well as modern military helicopters and jets. Someone not at all unfamiliar with shooting such gargantuan sequences is Titanic cinematographer Russell Carpenter who will serve as a visual consultant.

As cut and dry as the story itself sounds, I can see the action sequences in the air being nothing short of impressive. And it sounds like Chait is ready to put the audience on the edge of their seats. "Growing up the son of an artist and a pilot, I've always worked the drama and production value of aviation into my movies. That's still the best way to truly immerse an an audience in the experience." We'll just have to wait and see.

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geneguru

Bring it!
AC

awesome idea
Dave Lister, J.M.C.

So... it's not actually Fast and Furious with "jets" as the planes listed all have propeller driven engines.
http://www.firstshowing.net Ethan Anderton

@ #3, Okay, well the specific models listed are not jets. Sorry, but I'm not up to date on airplane models. But the same sentence does point out there there will also be jets, so I'm not totally in the wrong. Either way, I genuinely thank you for pointing out that those are propeller driven engines. Actually should make the air combat even more interesting. Regards,
Dreckent

"underground culture of illegal, real-life aerial combat" Now that one fckd-up fun idea...
samuel j

ive been waiting for a good airplane film. i hope this is it.
Janny

how does one dog fight in a B-17, i guess i shall wait to see also in terms of "a film captured the pure adrenaline rush and intensity of fighter jet air combat", as long as you remove 'jet' then Dark Blue World had just spectacular air combat
jdslater1

It's so dumb I want to see it now!
Cmurder

Dave, it said it will also use jets in addition to the turbo props listed....read the article again.
Pete

Great to hear they'll be using real planes. Could be interesting.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2408/blackbabyjesus.gif Crapola

I hope it's as gay as Top Gun, but with better moustaches and some singing. I'd like this film better if Tom Cruise did a fly by in a spaceship and blew it to pieces before it even began. The illegal flying world blown open to the world, yreeadssfsaaaaaaaaaaaah.
Bill

http://www.warbirdsmovie.com/ The film definitely looks interesting. Even if the move tanks, as a pilot, I'm jealous of all those lucky sunsaguns that get to fly these bird onto the big screen. It just looks like a fun movie to make!
Scotty97

If Louis Gossett Jr's not involved, I'm out. Lol. Is this an Iron Eagle III remake? We'll see how it looks when the trailer finally comes out. Sounds like a pretty corny idea, but I could be sucked in by the real warbirds onscreen. Oh, and #9-Cmurder: NONE of the planes listed are turbo-props. If you're going to be a d!ck, know your stuff. Read the article again...then go look those planes up. The closest would be an experimental project that was tested on a Corsair and Mustang in the late 40's, but none of those were ever produced beyond test ranges.