Red Tails

This article is about the 2012 film. For the African-American fighter pilots who were nicknamed "Red Tails", see Tuskegee Airmen. For other uses, see Red tail.

Red Tails
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAnthony Hemingway
Screenplay by
Story by
  • John Ridley
Based onRed Tails, Black Wings: The Men of America's Black Air Force
by John B. Holway
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJohn Aronson
Edited by
Music byTerence Blanchard
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release dates
  • January 11, 2012 (2012-01-11) (New York City)
  • January 20, 2012 (2012-01-20) (United States)
Running time
125 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesEnglish
German
Budget$58 million[1][2][3][4]
Box office$50.4 million[5]

Red Tails is a 2012 American war film directed by Anthony Hemingway in his feature directorial debut, and starring Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr. The film is about the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African-American United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) servicemen during World War II. The characters in the film are fictional, although based on real individuals.[6] The film was produced by Lucasfilm Ltd. and released by 20th Century Fox, and would be the last film Lucasfilm released before being purchased by The Walt Disney Company nine months later. This was Cuba Gooding Jr.'s first theatrically released film in five years since his starring role in 2007's Daddy Day Camp.

John Ridley wrote the screenplay. Additional material was shot the following year with executive producer George Lucas as director[7] and Aaron McGruder as writer of the reshoots.[8] It was filmed in March and July 2009. Red Tails was a personal project for Lucas, one that he had originally conceived in 1988. It is the first Lucasfilm production since the 1994 film Radioland Murders that is not associated with the Indiana Jones or Star Wars franchises.[9] Terrence Howard had previously portrayed a Tuskegee pilot in Hart's War (2002), and Cuba Gooding Jr. had previously starred in The Tuskegee Airmen (1995), an HBO made-for-television film about the same group of pilots.

  1. ^ Demby, Gene. "George Lucas: Hollywood Didn't Want To Fund 'Red Tails' Because Of Its Black Cast." huffingtonpost.com, January 11, 2012.
  2. ^ Fernandez, Jay A. "Director picked for Lucasfilm project." The Hollywood Reporter, September 30, 2008.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBC12Jan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Fritz, Ben. "Movie Projector: Fourth "Underworld" to Soar Higher Than 'Red Tails'." The Los Angeles Times, January 20, 2012. Retrieved: January 25, 2012.
  5. ^ "Red Tails (2012)." Box Office Mojo/Internet Movie Database, June 10, 2012. Retrieved: June 18, 2014.
  6. ^ Cone, Brandon and Josh Phillips. "‘Red Tails’ looks good, fails elsewhere." Archived January 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Bixby Bulletin, January 24, 2012. Retrieved: January 25, 2012.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference production was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference moviefone was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ " 'The Tuskegee Airmen'." Teach with Movies. Retrieved: January 24, 2012.