Can Red Tails Renew My Faith In Lucasfilm?

A few days ago, a trailer was released for a film called Red Tails which is based on the real life story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American fighter pilot squadron back in WWII. Normally, such a film wouldn't really get covered by a geek blog such as this as WWII fighter films don't usually fall under the geek or nerd genres, but Red Tails is different. Why, you ask? It's quite simple. Red Tails is the first non Star Wars or Indiana Jones related film to be produced by George Lucas and Lucasfilm since the 1994 release of Radioland Murders.

In fact, George Lucas himself wrote the original story idea for this film, and he's been planning on making it since back in 1988. Now, I know that the words "written by George Lucas" are enough to leave most nerds cringing in disgust after the release of the Star Wars prequels, but I can't help but feel hopeful that this might be Lucasfilm's first good film since 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Let's be honest here, Radioland Murders was pretty crappy.

Why do I think it might be good? Well, first of all, George Lucas didn't write the script. He only wrote the story idea. The screenplay itself was written by a man named John Ridley, whose screen credits include films I've actually enjoyed such as Undercover Brother and Three Kings. However, he also wrote the screenplay for the film U Turn, which is one of the worst things that I've ever had to sit through. So, admittedly, the script could go either way. The fact that Lucas himself did not write the screenplay though gives me some hope for a decent story with a plot that makes some sort of actual sense.

Second, George Lucas didn't direct this film. He's only the producer on it. Red Tails is actually being directed by Anthony Hemingway, whose credits mainly center around television shows such as BSG, True Blood, Heroes and Community. That's not too shabby. True, he doesn't have a feature film under his belt yet, but the projects he has worked on are all of decent quality, so he must have some ability, right? At the very least, he has to be better than Lucas' style of only doing over-the-shoulder shots or walking shots to convey all of his dialog scenes.

With Lucas only sitting on as the producer, there exists the possibility that this could finally mark the return of good filmmaking to Lucasfilm Limited. I remember back far enough to know that Lucasfilm used to be capable of churning out good films, so long as George himself was only peripherally involved. Let us not forget that Lucasfilm is the company responsible for giving us gems like Willow, the original Land Before Time, Howard The Duck (which I consider to be a misunderstood masterpiece) and a little film starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly called Labyrinth.

Remember that one? Yeah, that was produced by George Lucas and Lucasfilm. See? They used to make good movies, and I'm still hopeful that they can do so again. The trailer for Red Tails genuinely looks exciting to me. They have a great ensemble cast, the story has real promise and the special effects and fighter combat scenes look phenomenal.

I'm crossing my fingers here and am eagerly awaiting this one. Let's hope it breaks the 22 year old Lucasfilm curse and is actually a fun, enjoyable film.

(Thanks go to Virginia Schwarz for sending me the tip about the trailer's release.)