This is odd. A good follow-up story to the “Red Tails”/George Lucas drama that bubbled up a week ago, that never seemed to make it online for some reason.
You’ll recall a week ago, rumors popped up that the George Lucas-produced WWII fighter planes drama centered around African American soldiers was having issues and apparently the director Anthony Hemingway had done such a poor job that Lucas himself had to step in and finish some key scenes and reshoot others.
Lucasfilm quickly called these reports “inaccurate,” but didn’t elucidate further and we haven’t heard much since (and if you watched Twitter that day, many bloggers in the film community didn’t buy LucasFilm’s denial).
But EW‘s excellent reporter Nicole Sperling looked into the situation and seems to have found a logical explanation to a story that could have been inadvertently exaggerated to levels of melodrama. According to her report (again, not online, it’s in the “Alice In Wonderland” cover story issue), the film did need some reshoots (as film often do, it doesn’t always mean the end of the world), but Hemmingway already had prior commitments to direct episodes of David Simon’s New Orleans-set HBO show, “Treme” and wasn’t available (though that likely means reshoots were put into the schedule). So, Lucas and his producer Rick McCallum, decided that Lucas himself would direct the reshoots, McCallum would oversee, and Hemmingway would get approval (presumably when he’s available — does this mean he won’t be editing the picture?). This is probably why LucasFilm called the initial report “inaccurate” rather that flat out denying it was true.
“The Red Tails” cast is huge and contains a lot of strong TV actors too, plus a few musicians. The film features Terrence Howard, R&B singer NeYo, Andre Royo (from “The Wire”), Nate Parker (from “The Great Debaters”) and British actor David Oyelowo, Cuba Gooding Jr., Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”), Cliff Smith aka Method Man (“The Wire)” Tristan Wilds (“The Wire”), Kevin Phillips (“Pride”), Rick Otto (“The Wire”), Lee Tergesen (“Monster”), Andre Royo (“Heroes”), Elijah Kelley (“Hairspray”), Marcus T. Paulk (“Take the Lead”), Leslie Odom Jr. (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Michael B. Jordan (“The Wire”), singer Jazmine Sullivan, Edwina Finley (“Law and Order”), Daniela Ruah (“Midnight Passion”) and Stacie Davis (“The Wire”).
We’ll probably see this film in theaters later this year? One would imagine. Like almost all his projects, Lucas is self-financing the picture as well.