There aren’t that many projects with a tight a lid on them as RED TAILS, the George Lucas-produced tale of the Tuskagee Airmen. Though nearly the entire film has been shot already, we haven’t seen a picture or a video clip from the set, and there might be a good reason for that.
Apparently Lucas is pretty pissed with TV director Anthony Hemingway’s work on the project, and FirstShowing has inside info that Lucas is planning massive rewrites and reshoots of the film, which will completely change large sections of the project including the main characters and their storylines. From the source:
Principal photography wrapped in November last year with Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Bryan Cranston starring in a fictional story of the historic and heroic exploits of America’s first all black aerial combat unit in WWII. While the film is supposed to be in post-production right now, instead, Lucas’ producing partner Rick McCallum is said to be pouring over dailies right now, trying to salvage whatever footage they can from Hemingway’s work in order to figure out exactly how much will need to be re-shot. Combine that massive undertaking with an attempt to keep from going over budget if at all possible (even though this is a Lucasfilm project), and McCallum should be feeling quite a bit of stress about this project.
If you thought a post-STAR WARS Lucas might be a bit more mellow than he was before, you would seem to be incorrect. Though to be fair, if I had been working on a project for twenty years, I wouldn’t want anyone messing it up either. But if I DID want this much control over the final product, maybe I just should have directed the damn thing myself in the first place…
What do you think, is RED TAILS doomed, or will it pull out of its tailspin and surprise us all?
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