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Is THE MIGHTY EIGHTH Still A Mighty Go?

by Jef Dinsmore
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The website NME is the only site out there reporting that THE MIGHTY EIGHTH miniseries is moving along. This, of course, is good news (if valid) as HBO fans have been waiting quite a long while for this companion piece to BAND OF BROTHERS and THE PACIFIC. The work, helmed by Tom Hanks’ Playtone, will be about the US Eighth Air Force’s bombing raids over Nazi Germany. It is another moment in the epic telling of WWII campaigns that Playtone has been chronicling, but it is taking far too long to get made for many eager fans.

How does the site know of this development? Well, it seems that a movie entitled Magpie was shooting on location at Horham’s Red Feather Club in Suffolk, England. They were interrupted by people claiming to be the writing team of the THE MIGHTY EIGHTH script and that they were out and about scouting filming locations. The moment was captured for Twitter:

MagpieTweet

Now, I don’t claim to be knowledgeable of cinematic production procedures or have the habit of calling anyone out as a liar, but one notion trips me up about this posting. It states that “writers” from THE MIGHTY EIGHTH showed up. That leads you to believe that the screenwriters responsible for the ten scripts were touring around U. K. & Europe getting background information. I say, holy hell, this has been in development since 2012 and we are just now getting this type of information? Damn.

My real red flag about this, though, is that I thought producers and/or location scouts checked out potential sites for on-location shooting. You can’t tell me writers needed to see the GAME OF THRONES or DEADWOOD locales before they started writing? I realize the tone of THE MIGHTY EIGHTH is one of historical accuracy, but shouldn’t this project be at the point by now where they want to set up filming schedules? I guess that is just wishful thinking.

Apparently, MNE, and now us, have learned that the writing of this miniseries isn’t completed yet because writers would not be scouting film locations. So we still wait and quite frankly waiting too long. Yeah, I know practice what I preach – you can’t rush quality.   

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12 comments

r smith May 16, 2018 - 8:08 am

And its mid 2018 and nothing,,,while HBO does one nonsense after another

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John Baseilon April 8, 2018 - 10:34 am

Still waiting

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JWC1969 July 25, 2017 - 4:33 pm

If you read the comments under the NME (poorly researched) article, you’ll note that John Orloff wrote the following: “Hey, FYI, the title of the series is NOT “The Mighty Eight,” and that teaser trailer has nothing to do with the HBO series. But we did visit Horham last week. : )” For those in the know, Mr. Orloff wrote 2 episodes of the Band of Brothers series. With him visiting British air bases, looks like things are starting to ramp up.

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John Orloff August 8, 2017 - 12:01 pm

You are correct, OUR SERIES IS NOT CALLED “THE MIGHTY EIGHTH”.

And this time I am writing the entire 800 page script myself. That takes TIME. As does research. The first year I worked on it (mid 2014-15), it was ALL research and writing an outline…. then it takes time for everyone to read a 250 page outline and get their thoughts to me… and then it takes time to write 800 pages.

This process is different than either BoB or Pacific…..and yes, has taken more time. But patience everyone… It’s going to be amazing, like nothing ever seen.

People who are interested can follow me on twitter.

https://twitter.com/johnorloff

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Bryan Cockel August 21, 2017 - 6:30 pm

Keep up the good work John. Can’t think of anyone who I’d rather write my father’s story, who served as a B-17 waist gunner with the 305th Bomb Group (Curtis LeMay lead it). At they time he showed up as a replacement in 1943, the’d already suffered something like 80% casualties. He never, ever talked about it. I read his (illegal) diary as a kid in the 60’s. I was astounded what he’d been through.

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Griselda August 31, 2017 - 5:31 am

Wowwww, I would like to know if the story shows what happened with Charly Brown and german Franz Stigler, my son has Asperger and he is really interesed in war stories, he is the one who told me the story when I show him the trailer from YouTube. Thanks!!!

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John Wertz July 23, 2017 - 7:57 pm

I was in the UK on business back in July of 2013. As I wrapped up on Wednesday, I began doing some sightseeing that included the IWM at Duxford. I was about to complete the scientific test plane for the Concord, one of the visitors said “too bad you won’t be here next weekend”. When I asked why, he said that Hanks and Spielberg were going to be at Duxford, as part of their research regarding location shoots. After a short visit, he said they were going to Bassingborne, an active base that still has a WWII control tower. I asked when they were going to release and he said likely end of 2015, beginning of 2016. I said “that’s a long ways away, but I guess I can wait”. Here it is and still waiting.

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John Wertz July 23, 2017 - 8:00 pm

BTW…my father was pilot in the 427th Sqd of the 303rd Bomb Group (Hells Angels).

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Jef Dinsmore June 30, 2017 - 12:42 pm

In light of the two recent comments I once again scanned my resources only to discover that there has been no new news regarding THE MIGHTY EIGHTH.

They never should have dropped the buzz back in 2014 that the project was even a go. It has been a long wait and we continue to do so.

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maxhdrm June 28, 2017 - 9:43 am

How did we go from a trailer for The Mighty eighth movie (which obviously showed finished principle photography) to a development heck of a TV series?. Does no one remember that the Original premise of the Movie was about a camera man filming the Mighty eighth in Action then getting caught up having to fight as their plane is attacked? Look up the trailer, it was already done as a film in 2014 and had a late 2014/early 2015 release date for the theater before disappearing without being released. Where is THAT film that looked awesome?

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Jojocotto June 30, 2017 - 12:19 pm

I think what you’re referring to was a stand alone teaser which was filmed and created completely independently and in advance of the miniseries probably to get funding from the network, not a teaser for a movie or indicating the show was already shot.

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Jonathan Azzopardi April 5, 2017 - 5:54 am

Maybe (hope springs eternal) they got the ‘writer’ bit wrong and in reality they were location scouts. Still, we were informed as far back as 2015 that filming was already in progress …

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