The latest event series in the Band of Brothers, Masters of the Air is gaining some series momentum at Apple Studios as Elvis star Austin Butler and Callum Turner have been tapped to star in the new miniseries. Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television and Tom Hanks & Gary Goetzman’s Playtone will produce
Based on the compelling book by Donald L. Miller, Masters of the Air follows the true, deeply personal story of the American bomber boys in World War II who brought the war to Hitler’s doorstep. The series is written by Band of Brothers alumnus John Orloff and Emmy and Golden Globe winner Graham Yost, who are also co-executive producing. Produced by Apple Studios, Steven Spielberg will executive produce through Amblin Television, alongside executive producers Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman for Playtone. Amblin Television’s Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey and Playtone’s Steven Shareshian serve as co-executive producers. Alex Maggioni will oversee the day-to-day development of the project for Amblin, alongside Spielberg, Frank and Falvey.
Butler will star as Major Gale Cleven, and Turner will star as Major John Egan.
Masters of the Air is a follow-up to the producers’ Emmy-winning World War II HBO miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010), which they made for HBO. Each won the Emmy for Best Limited Series; Band of Brothers won seven total Emmys in 20 nominations, while The Pacific won eight Emmys in 24 nominations. Masters of the Air began development at HBO but shook loose as the outlet was overhauled. Apple secured it quickly.
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Deadline hears that the series will span 10 episodes that will cost well north of $200 million to produce. Actors had been meeting with producers and execs at the end of 2019 and came to a decision on the four leads in recent weeks.
Butler has been on quite a roll since his scene-stealing part as one of the Manson Family members in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. He would follow that up by being handpicked by Baz Luhrmann to play the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Elvis, which just wrapped filming in Australia.
Turner recently was seen in Emma opposite Anya Taylor-Joy as well as the Peacock original miniseries The Capture. He next plays Newt Scamander’s brother in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 3.
Butler is represented by Anonymous Content and WME and Turner is repped by WME, Curtis Brown UK, PJ Shapiro at Ziffren.
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