Red Tails (2012)

Upcoming World War II film about the Tuskegee Airmen, the legendary group of African-American combat pilots as produced by George Lucas and directed by Anthony Hemingway.

Starring: 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., Michael B. Jordan, Jazmine Sullivan, Edwina Finley, Daniela Ruah and Stacie Davis

Release date: January 20, 2012.

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."

Watch Trailer

Sources: Playlist

Catherine Oxenberg on Duchess of Cambridge, and a new historical drama

Stumbled on this video of Catherine Oxenberg talking about what life might be like for the newest member of Britain's royal family - Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. I am a bit worried about how all this publicity will wear on Kate and William after a while and sincerely hope that the British press retract their infamous claws and allow the royal couple to have some semblance of a normal life! I got curious about what film projects Oxenberg has been doing and discovered that she will be portraying her grandmother H.R.H. Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark in a movie that she's co-written and which is being produced by her parents Howard Oxenberg and Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia. [Details below video]

Prince Charles' Cousin Talks Royal Life

Prince Paul Royal Exile is a historical drama about "the true story of the private conversation between H.R.H Prince Paul of Yugoslavia and Hitler to negotiate a none aggression treaty to save Yugoslavia from certain annihilation."

Synopsis: "Royal Exile is a historical drama/political thriller based on the life of His Royal Highness Prince Paul of Yugoslavia at the time of WW2. It is an intimate, behind the scenes glimpse of the interaction between members of the Royal houses of Europe as they dealt with the threat of impending war, the tragic events that led up to the betrayal of Prince Paul and the subsequent destruction of Yugoslavia.
Prince Paul became Regent after the brutal assassination of his cousin King Alexander in 1934. As reigning monarch, he healed the internal rifts of his country and forged the first functioning democratic government. When Germany declared war against Poland, Paul was thrust into the unenviable role of protecting his country on all sides from the threat of both Fascist and Communist invasions. He courageously stood up to Hitler and skillfully negotiated peace and autonomy for his country while the rest of the Balkans fell to the Nazis.
Sadly, it was his desire for peace that perpetuated his downfall. Churchill decided that Yugoslavia should declare war on Germany, unprovoked. When the Allies were unable to send military assistance, Paul refused to sacrifice his people. The British secretly funded a coup d’etat which resulted in his abdication and resulting exile. Hitler immediately launched “Operation Punishment” and within a week Yugoslavia lay in ruins, over a million Yugoslavs eventually lost their lives.
Prince Paul and his family were sent to Kenya for the remainder of the war where they lived under British house arrest. Paul spent the rest of his life labelled a traitor and a Nazi sympathizer. Now, 70 years later, he is finally being recognized as a peacemaker and a visionary and has been vindicated as a national hero."

[IMDb mentions that it's filming in Serbia, not sure of release date]

Official site for Prince Paul Royal Exile

Habermann (2010)

War is over. Vengeance has begun.

"We are determined to get rid of these Germans forever..."
Edvard Beneš, President of Czechoslovakia

"You will have no difficulties from our side.
Go right on and prepare it."
Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S. President

German mill owner spends WWII trying to save his wife, daughter and Czech workers from Nazi terror, but faces his own tragic end in an unexpected way. Based on true events surrounding the expulsion of Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia in 1945.

"The events happened more than sixty years ago, but their effects can be felt even today. If we want to understand the present, we have to know what happened in the past. The film starts with the expulsion: we know from the start how this story will end – there is no escape. Then we are shown the events that led up to it. The story of HABERMANN ends after the "expulsion" of the Germans from the Sudetenland area bordering Germany and Czechoslovakia in 1945, and remains today one of the darkest chapters in the relationship between Germans and Czechs. The atrocities perpetrated in the course of the expulsion are a taboo to his date. Many Czechs do not want to be reminded of it, many Germans insist that they have been wronged bitterly at the time and that nobody has ever had to pay for this. There is now a new young generation that wants information about the past." - director Juraj Herz
[German with English subtitles]

Official site

Berlin 36 (2009)

"A remarkable true story of the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the strange machinations of the Nazi propaganda machine inspired this historical drama. Adolf Hitler and his associates saw the 1936 Olympics as an ideal opportunity to show the superiority of the fascist way of life to the world, but their plans hit a snag when the American Olympic team announced they would boycott the games unless the German team allowed Jewish athletes to participate. Much of the controversy hinged on Gretel Bergmann (Karoline Herfurth), a world-class high jumper who seemed a sure bet to make the German team except for the fact she was a Jew. German sports minister Hans von Tschamner und Osten (Thomas Thieme) and his assistant Karl Ritter von Halt (Johann von Buelow) quickly hatched a plan to placate both sides -- they would invite Bergmann to participate in a qualifying meet, but match her against a gentile athlete certain to beat her. Finding a female who could outjump Bergmann was a formidable task, and the Jewish champion soon found herself up against a little known competitor, Marie Ketteler, who hid a secret from the world -- Marie was actually a man (played bySebastian Urzendowsky). As fate would have it, both Bergmann and Ketteler made the team and struck up a friendship, but one that would soon be compromised by Ketteler's deeper feelings. And while Ketteler was in fact a man, he had been living in sexual limbo much of his life, having been raised as a girl by his overbearing mother (Marita Breuer), which only added to his dilemma." [Mark Deming, Fandango]