Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks to bring WWII drama Masters of the Air to Apple TV+

By Chris Gates Published October 11, 2019

The team that brought you Band of Brothers and The Pacific is at it again. Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and Playtone, the production company owned by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, will adapt Donald L. Miller’s nonfiction novel Masters Of The Air for Apple. The limited series will air exclusively on Apple’s upcoming streaming service, Apple TV+.

Spielberg, Hanks, and Goetzman will serve as executive producers on the series, which tells the story of the Eighth Air Force, or the Mighty Eighth, a group of pilots that changed the course of World War II. Masters of the Air will be written by Band of Brothers scribe John Orloff. Deadline reports that the series will be about eight hours long, and will cost around $200 million to produce.

Recommended Videos

Interestingly, Masters of the Air will be the first Apple TV+ series filmed at Apple’s own production studio, which is also called Masters. Apple executives Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht will oversee the studio, Variety says.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Masters of the Air marks yet another instance of Apple poaching top-tier talent from its streaming service competitors. Band of Brothers and The Pacific, both of which Spielberg and Hanks produced, aired on HBO, where they earned a cumulative 43 Emmy nominations and won 14. Masters of the Air was also set to debut on the premium network, but HBO decided to pass on the project earlier this year, opening the door for Apple to swoop in and pick it up.

That’s becoming something of a trend. Just yesterday, Alfonso Cuarón, director of Netflix’s Oscar-winning film Roma, signed an exclusive deal with Apple to produce TV content for Apple TV+. That deal is said to last for five years.

In addition to Masters of the Air, Steven Spielberg is producing a revival of the sci-fi anthology series Amazing Stories for Apple TV+. The original Amazing Stories, which Spielberg created, ran on NBC for two seasons in the mid-’80s.

Apple TV+ launches on November 1, 2019, at $5 a month. Despite the staggering number of big names signed on for Apple TV+ content, analysts have expressed concerns about the service’s limited library and its overall effect on the streaming economy, which could be to drive up subscription prices across the board.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

<a href="https://kecsukorejo.kendalkab.go.id/asset/-/situs-slot-resmi/">situs slot resmi</a>

Entertainment

Masters of the Air: How the Apple TV+ series crafted some of the year’s best visuals

Callum Turner stands with a group of pilots in Masters of the Air.

Twenty-three years ago, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman created Band of Brothers, the groundbreaking war series that followed East Company on the Western Front of World War II. Nine years later, The Pacific depicted the WWII exploits of several Marines in the Pacific Theater. In 2024, the action heads to the sky in Masters of the Air, the Apple TV+ limited series about the brave soldiers in the 100th Bomb Group during World War II.

Masters of the Air is visually stunning, backed by sensational production design and thrilling battle sequences. During the virtual production, Masters of the Air utilized cutting-edge technology and thousands of visual effects shots to film the immersive aerial sequences. Two talented craftsmen who worked on Masters of the Air were DNEG VFX supervisor Xavier Bernasconi and virtual production executive Steve Jelley, Co-CEO of Dimension Studio.

Entertainment

Has Apple TV+ become the new home of Prestige TV?

Callum Turner and Austin Butler stand near a plane in Masters of the Air.

Masters of the Air is the third and final installment in the trilogy of World War II TV dramas that Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg have been producing for well over 20 years now. Their efforts began with 2001’s Band of Brothers and continued with 2010’s The Pacific, both of which took home the Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries in their respective years. Both aired on HBO, which was seen at the time as the only place where expensive, truly prestige miniseries like them could be made. A lot’s changed since then.

Case in point: Masters of the Air isn’t an HBO production. The miniseries, which follows the members of the real-life 100th Bomb Group and their bombing efforts in Nazi-controlled regions of WWII-era Europe, premiered last week on Apple TV+. It isn’t any less expensive or star-studded than Band of Brothers and The Pacific. On the contrary, one could argue that it’s an even bigger series than either of those two dramas. Why, then, was Spielberg and Hanks’ most ambitious WWII miniseries to date made for Apple TV+ rather than HBO, the home of its two sister shows?

Entertainment

Like Apple TV+’s hit WWII drama Masters of the Air? Then watch these 3 great shows right now

Rami Malek and Joseph Mazzello point guns and cover in The Pacific.

The end of January marks the premiere of one of the most anticipated TV shows of the year, Masters of the Air. The Apple TV+ war series follows the 100th Bomb Group, a group of courageous pilots in the Air Force who came to be known as the "Bloody Hundredth" during World War II. The series features an ensemble cast of rising stars, including Austin Butler, Callum Turner, and Barry Keoghan.

If it connects with critics and fans, Masters of the Air could become one of the next great television shows. If you're looking for more war shows, the three series listed below should be next on your must-watch lists. Two shows are companion pieces to Masters of the Air, while the third is based on a famous satirical novel from the 1960s.
Band of Brothers (2001)