Red Tails: Hollywood Refused to Make Because of All-Black Cast

I've been following the development of this film for years. Lucas didn't get any dough from investors. This has been a passion project of his for most of his life. He was originally going to make it in 1990 or 1991 but he felt the technology wasn't good enough to recreate the sky dogfights. When the tech got better he shopped the idea around to every major studio in Hollywood. And they all turned him down. Turned down a man who is one of the most successful guys in the history of Hollywood, a legend who changed the industry. As a result Lucas had to use his own personal resources to make the damn thing. A somewhat close equivalent would be if Spielberg, another billionaire, was turned down by every studio for "War Horse" and had to dig into his bank account to both make the film and promote it.

Anyway below is a link that to me did the best job of describing the behind-the-scenes decisions concerning how to get this movie made. Oh, and you can bet Hollywood studios will be rooting against this movie like mad.

http://www.ceskapozice.cz/en/news/society/time-finally-right-lucasfilm%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98red-tails%E2%80%99

 

It may have money but it was a crappy teen flick. Worse of all it was an "issues" movie with one major issue being the IR aspect of the relationship. We will know we have come a long way when major Hollywood films can start having black men and white women paired romantically without race being brought up. You know. Just how it is done when a black actress is paired alongside the white male star in a major movie.

 

This is such a weak complaint because the vast majority of movies with substantial black roles don't deal with "historic racism". So I don't know what that "always" bullshit comes from.

Consider the fact that Hollywood studio heads aren't overly keen about:

1)period movies
2)movies that deal with racism
3)movies that deal with black people
4)movies that are period pieces that deal with the racism dealt with by black people


So in other words a whole lot of those films have never been produced. As one white critic for the WPost wrote in a column years ago, the Civil Rights period is the lone important period of American history that has been underrepresented in Hollywood films. So for those who think that here have been a lot of these types of movies that's your mind playing tricks on you. Why that is I have no idea.

 

Benjamin O. Davis was a general in the army, not the Air Force during WW2. You are confusing him with his son (Benjamin O. Davis Jr.) who served in the Air Force after being rejected by the army. Benjamin O. Davis Jr served in WW2 as a colonel who oversaw many of the all-black air squadrons.

 

i know everyone's saying that Lucas is a billionaire and this and that....but that's not the point. The way the other heads in hollywood turned the project down was straight horseshit and is something I'm glad is being aired out in the open. If this film is good and pays serious homage to our forefathers, Lucas deserves some serious props for going against the tide.

 

I won't go see this like I won't go see any other movie. Like mr.Burn said I think I'll feel happier with the money. They think I am paying 8 dollars to see a movie, please. Everyone else have fun though.:smt039 When they start bringing it to a dollar, I'll be back.

 

It wasn't meant as a complaint, merely an observation. I'm sorry if I made an error, but I was thinking of Roots, Cry Freedom, Mississippi Burning, Something That the Lord Made, Sounder, Miracle at St. Anna, Do The Right Thing, X, School Daze, Amistad, Raisin in the Sun, the current film Red Tails (which I plan to pay my ducats to go see), Men of Honor, A Soldier's Story, Glory, Monster's Ball, White Man's Burden, A Dry White Season, and the list goes on.

While I love almost all of these films, I have noticed (erroneously, apparently) that films either generally slot black people in the malevolent 'Other' roles, frightening the beejeezus out of whites with our supposed hyper-violence, hyper-sexuality, and whatever other BS they come up with (with almost zero nuance or real character development a la The Wire), or roles where blackness vis-a-vis whiteness is almost an invisible character in the movie. I have no gripe over historical films, but I'm generally much more interested in (hence the pic of Chiwetel as the Operative) in sci-fi and futurism. Just a preference, nothing more, nothing less. The statement wasn't meant to imply that there is a large quantity of films featuring black actors, but of those that are released, many are period pieces. I did not necessarily mean that all films with black actors deal exclusively with racism or slavery, but the observation can even extend to extreme characterizations rooted in popular culture stereotypes. It is almost palpable to me. But I was wrong. My mistake.

And I didn't mean to skip over the "Tyler Perry and similar films" genre, either. In my opinion they fall into the "characterizations rooted in popular culture stereotypes" idea I was struggling to articulate.

This article does a better job of expressing my thoughts on the racism or stereotyping dichotomy in movies: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/movies/awardsseason/13movies.html

 

This is the second major studio project about the Tuskegee airmen in the last 20 years.

HBO made 'The Tuskegee Airmen' in 1995 starring Lawrence Fishburne.

I don't think the all Black cast was the deciding factor. I think the fear from major studios is that the only WWII era movie that did well at the box office in recent memory was 'Saving Private Ryan'.

Most of these flicks bomb and don't draw the audiences.

It's cool that George Lucas got this flick made,


..but I don't think it's going to do all that well at the box office because of the subject matter.

Historical bio pics are a hard sell for the superhero/action flick/Hangover crowd.

Maybe Lucas felt it was a story that needed to be told in a big way and recorded for our collective historical legacy and doesn't really care if it does well from a profit perspective.

 

Yeah, Cuba Gooding has joined Christian Slater and Stephen Dorff in the 'Redbox Late Night Rentals' category. It's a shame, too, because he's done some incredible work.

Historical bios usually draw an older crowd (55+) and I'm a bit of a superhero/sci-fi/action buff, but I'm going to see it anyway. My late grandfather was a WWII veteran and would have loved to see this. Plus, with LucasFilm involved, you know the dogfights and the cinematography are going to be brilliant. It's heartening to see such a cast and a budget of this size being brought to bear to tell this story.

 

O4,my grandfather served in WWII in Europe and was on D-Day on the service corps. He would had liked it as well. I wished there is a movie of that Black tank batallion however.

 

Im gonna see it because this is a test pilot for other all black big action type movies that are in a positive lite...not being a thug or someones mammy (the help type movie). spike did ok with his war movie but not good to turn heads. Im gonna support it because this is something as black people need to do.

 

and what's wrong with Straight to DVD movies?
(besides the hack acting, cheesy dialogue and preschool special effects)

 

My grandfather was in Pearl Harbor, but he wasn't in combat. He actually got trapped in the barracks shower when the building collapsed. He went on to serve the rest of WWII in the Pacific area.

I agree that it's good to see positive films being made, and I'm psyched to check this one out.

Petty, don't sleep on those awful Sci-Fi Channel Saturday night flicks with those Atari-graphic type special effects! LOL

 

Straight to DVD IMO no longer automatically means a flick is 'low budget'; poor acting/script/bland acting.

More and more, worthy movies are pulled from theatres if they don't blow up in the first few weeks.


You won't see another 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' that was in theatres for what seemed like forever as it slowly built up an audience.

Blockbuster needs to change their business model because there's still a demand for a movie rental store that allows you to browse hundreds of titles, not just the highest grossing flicks.

 

Well stated indeed. I will be the first in line to see it when it comes out. I very much enjoyed Miracle at St. Anna, as well as the HBO-made version of the Tuskegee Airmen a few years back. These are the kind of positive, uplifting movies I make sure I support with my time and $.

 

We need these positive flicks to counteract the deluge of garbage put out there on a regular basis. I can't wait for the day when a black character is just a character, not a caricature, in a film. Let's put our money behind this film.

 

movies are expensive but this is money well spent IMO

this affects more than your wallet. This will open up more doors for black actors, that are already short changed because they're not white

 

Yes. I can't wait for more roles for black actors like:

 

Exactly. I'd pay to go see "Red Tails" before I'd ever pay for a Tyler Perry film.

 

Ditto.