When you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. George Lucas had taken an executive producing role on “Red Tails,” the WWII set story about the Tuskegee Airmen, but after seeing the debut feature film work of director Anthony Hemingway (whose career has been in TV, and after this fiasco will probably remain in TV) he was reportedly “very displeased” and has decided that “massive reshoots” are in order and he will direct them himself.
Filming on the picture, which stars Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Bryan Cranston wrapped last November, and while the film is supposed to be in post-production now, Lucas’ producing partner Rick McCallum is apparently wading through the dailies to salvage whatever they can. In addition to the reshoots, there are also going to be some pretty drastic rewrites, to the point where main characters and storylines are going to change. So at what point does a reshoot become starting over from scratch? It appears the production is treading that very fine line. Though the question remains: was no one looking at dailies when the picture was actually being filmed?
There is no word yet on when these re-shoots will take place, though we think it’s safe to say any chances of this hitting theaters this year is out of the question. And we can only imagine how bad the footage must of been for Lucas – whose quality meter has been broken for quite some time – to want to take the project over himself.
Update: Lucas Film is denying this report by FirstShowing. They evidently sent some kind of statement out that Digital Spy acquired. “The story that is circulating about production on Red Tails is completely inaccurate,” the statement reads. “George Lucas and Rick McCallum are very pleased with the work Anthony Hemingway did directing the film and additional shooting that is scheduled to take place was built into production before it began, as it is on all our films.”