Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are coming together once again to make an epic World War II series about a brave air force squadron.
The nine-episode limited series called Masters of the Air will premiere on Apple TV+ early next year, with first look photos showing some rising stars of Hollywood in the leading roles including Oscar nominees Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan.
Masters of the Air will make its global debut on Friday, January 26, 2024, with Spielberg and Hanks sharing producer roles alongside Gary Goetzman. The trio previously produced two other epic WWII TV series, Band of Brothers and The Pacific, while Hanks and Spielberg famously collaborated on the Academy Award winning WWII film Saving Private Ryan.
The first two episodes will premiere at the same time, with a new episode dropping every Friday.
Based on Donald L. Miller's book of the same name, Masters of the Air follows the story of the 8th Air Force, an American squadron, who faced hellish conditions to conduct air raids over Nazi Germany.
"Masters of the Air is a salute to the brave men of the 8th Air Force, who, through their courage and brotherhood, helped defeat Nazi Germany in World War II," said executive producer Goetzman. "Tom and Steven have always wanted to visualize cinematically what our author Don Miller has called, this 'singular event in the history of warfare.'"
Known as the "Bloody Hundredth," the squadron conducted dangerous bombing raids over Nazi Germany while facing freezing conditions, lack of oxygen, and combat at 25,000 feet in the air.
The series will portray the psychological and emotional toll paid by the young men whose camaraderie and strong bonds got them through their missions and helped to destroy Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.
Masters of the Air promises an epic scale of production with scenes showing quaint villages in southeast England, to the harsh conditions in a German prisoner of war camp.
Apple TV+ described the series as "enormous in both scale and scope, and a genuine cinematic achievement," in a statement to media.
Other stars in the show include Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle, Nate Mann, Rafferty Law, Josiah Cross, Branden Cook and Sex Education's Ncuti Gatwa.
Directed by Spielberg and starring Hanks, Saving Private Ryan was the second highest grossing film of 1998 and follows a military unit who, after securing Normandy Beach, are assigned to find a soldier whose brothers were killed in action. The film that has been credited for showing the intensity and gruesomeness of World War II like few others.
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