'Red Tails' Trailer: George Lucas-Produced WWII Film Finally Takes Off

Break out your best 'delayed flight' metaphors: the George Lucas-produced film Red Tails, which follows the exploits of WWII flyers the Tuskegee Airmen, is finally going to hit skies. Or screens, as it were. The date: January 20, 2012, confirming previous info from director Anthony Hemingway that the film would be released this coming January.

Along with that release date the trailer for the film has just hit. Get a look at the war film that was many years in the making, after the break.

There is not a damn subtle thing about the script, or so it seems from the dialogue we hear in this trailer. But the action looks fantastic and even with the clunky dialogue I have a feeling this one might play like gangbusters. Seems to me like you'd have to work pretty hard to make a film about these pilots that couldn't move an audience at least a little bit.

Red Tails was in development for over twenty years, and the shooting script was penned by John Ridley in 2007. The film shot under the direction of Anthony Hemingway starting in March 2009.

The cast is largely great; it features Terrence Howard, NeYo, Andre Royo, Nate Parker, David Oyelowo, Cuba Gooding Jr., Bryan Cranston, Method Man, Tristan Wilds, Kevin Phillips, Rick Otto, Lee Tergesen, Elijah Kelley, Marcus T. Paulk, Leslie Odom Jr., Jazmine Sullivan, Edwina Finley, Daniela Ruah and Stacie Davis.

Some minor controversy came out over the film as rumors flew about reshoots directed by George Lucas — the official line was that they were planned reshoots and Mr. Hemingway was not available to helm the reshoots.

Here's the lengthy synopsis:

1944. World War II rages and the fate of the free world hangs in the balance. Meanwhile the black pilots of the experimental Tuskegee training program are courageously waging two wars at once — one against enemies overseas, and the other against discrimination within the military and back home. Racial prejudices have long held ace airman Martin "Easy" Julian (Nate Parker) and his black pilots back at base — leaving them with little to do but further hone their flying skills — while their white counterparts are shipped out to combat after a mere three months of training. Mistakenly deemed inferior and assigned only second-rate planes and missions, the pilots of Tuskegee have mastered the skies with ease but have not been granted the opportunity to truly spread their wings. Until now.

As the war in Europe continues to take its dire toll on Allied forces, Pentagon brass has no recourse but to reconsider these under-utilized pilots for combat duty. Just as the young Tuskegee men are on the brink of being shut down and shipped back home, Col. A.J. Bullard (Terrence Howard) awards them the ultimate chance to prove their mettle high above. Undaunted by the prospect of providing safe escort to bombers in broad daylight — a mission so dangerous that the RAF has refused it and the white fighter groups have sustained substantial losses — Easy's pilots at last join the fiery aerial fray. Against all the odds, with something to prove and everything to lose, these intrepid young airmen take to the skies in a heroic endeavor to combat the enemy — and the discrimination that has kept them down for so long.

[Movieline]