Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks bringing Band Of Brothers follow-up Masters Of The Air to Apple TV+
Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are this generation’s most tenacious onscreen chroniclers of World War II, having previously explored the Normandy landings in Saving Private Ryan, Easy Company paratroopers in Band Of Brothers, and the Marine Corps in The Pacific. Now, the pair have re-teamed yet again for Masters Of The Air, a limited series based on Donald L. Miller’s Masters Of The Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought The Air War Against Nazi Germany. Specifically, the series will follow the Eighth Air Force.
Spielberg and Hanks, via their Amblin Television and Playtone production companies, were originally developing the series at HBO, which aired both Band Of Brothers and The Pacific. Per Deadline, however, “HBO ultimately left the historical WWII event miniseries space”—probably, we’d wager, around the time it was acquired by AT&T—so the team took the project to Apple, which is set to debut its TV+ programming on November 1. Early reports say the series will span roughly eight hours and will cost well over $200 million to produce. Masters Of The Air is also notable for being the first Apple series to be made in their own studio, which Variety reports is, rather fittingly, called Masters.
Band Of Brothers alum John Orloff will write and produce, with Justified creator (and Band Of Brothers writer) Graham Yost also producing. This is Spielberg’s second project with Apple following the anthology series Amazing Stories.