Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks make new WWII drama

I saw that on the Key Aero forum last night when I was hunting info on Bristol Pegasus radial engines. I didn't think Pacific was anywhere near as good as Band of Brothers. This new one is based on the 8th Air Force bombing campaign. I saw 12 O'Clock High and that wasn't bad.

Should be good!

Too true. 12 O'clock high was a great movie from what I remember too. Any Bomber group in England during WWII would make for great story telling.

Could someone get Jackson and Spielberg onto a story or two? Its long overdue for a good Kiwi war movie and there is tons of material to work with.

Yes, Spitfires, P-38's, Thunderbolts, and Mustangs.

That's a fantastic painting Luther. Very much looking forward to this series.

To tell you the truth, I also didn't think "The Pacific" was as good as it could have been - but maybe that was because I read "With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa" by Eugene Sledge a number of years ago, and didn't think they did as much as they could have with Sledge's material.

Anyway, we'll see how this turns out - I'm sure it'll sell very well.

Personally I don't feel that the Hanks and Spielberg productions come across anything like the "We won the war all on our own" style that you seem to think. They are telling true stories and real men and their small part in the war. They are not making a documentary about all the Allied countries who took on the Fascists and Japanese.

I think it's hugely refreshing that these guys bring real stories to the screen, rather than fictional, over the top bullshit that pervaded through most previous US attempts to make a war film or series. They choose real men and don't change the names, or the stories. They also use very good actors, writers and crews. It's a far cry and darned sight better than the John Wayne "I'm the best and I singlehandedly won the war" crap of the past.

As for U-571, there was nothing wrong with that film, it was a great fictional action film based loosely on factual circumstance. Hollywood and lots of other production houses make such films every week, they are for entertainment, and this one was pretty darned good at what it did. No-ne ever said it was true. Yet the poms still had massive fits about it...

I seem to recall that Peter Jackson was toying with a Gallipoli idea a while back.

Agreed, Gallipoli has been done several times by the Aussies, the Brits and the Kiwis (Chunuk Bair). There were a lot of other battles in WWI that the New Zealanders fought in, on land, sea and in the air. Do something original.

I would also love to see a ten-part miniseries following a kiwi soldier or unit through from, say, Crete or perhaps El Alamein an into Italy with Cassino and other large battles covered.

And I agree again that nothing beats Das Boot, for a great story and realism. It was a masterpiece.