Last night at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles, Apple TV+ hosted the red carpet premiere of “Masters of the Air,” the highly anticipated World War II drama that will premiere globally with two episodes of the nine-episode series on Friday, January 26.
Attendees at the “Masters of the Air” premiere included executive producers Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, alongside stars Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Nate Mann, Anthony Boyle, Barry Keoghan, Raff Law, Sawyer Spielberg, Jonas Moore, Elliot Warren, Matt Gavan, Edward Ashley, David Shields, Ben Radcliffe, Jordan Coulson, Branden Cook, Josiah Cross, Francis Lovehall, Phillip Lewitski, Jerry MacKinnon, Ella Rubin, Josh Bolt and Kai Alexander. Co-executive producer and writer John Orloff; co-executive producers Graham Yost, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank and David Coatsworth; directors Ryan Fleck and Dee Rees; author of the book, Donald L. Miller; and, World War II veterans, John “Lucky” Luckadoo, James Rasmussen, Henry Cervantes and Robert Wolff also attended the red carpet premiere event.
Based on Miller’s book of the same name, and scripted by John Orloff, “Masters of the Air” follows the men of the 100th Bomb Group (the “Bloody Hundredth”) as they conduct perilous bombing raids over Nazi Germany and grapple with the frigid conditions, lack of oxygen and sheer terror of combat conducted at 25,000 feet in the air. Portraying the psychological and emotional price paid by these young men as they helped destroy the horror of Hitler’s Third Reich, is at the heart of “Masters of the Air.” Some were shot down and captured; some were wounded or killed. And some were lucky enough to make it home. Regardless of individual fate, a toll was exacted on them all.
Ranging in location from the bucolic fields and villages of southeast England, to the harsh deprivations of a German prisoner-of-war camp, and depicting a unique and crucial time in world history, “Masters of the Air” is enormous in both scale and scope, and a genuine cinematic achievement.
