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Movies & TV

14th Mar 2022

Spielberg’s follow-up to Band Of Brothers has an incredibly strong Irish connection

Rory Cashin

This will be a must-watch for fans of Saving Private Ryan and The Pacific.

Following the success of their 1998 movie Saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg have continued to collaborate together on telling stories set within World War II.

In 2001, we got the 10-episode run of the much-loved HBO show Band Of Brothers, which was followed in 2010 by The Pacific.

Now, over a decade later, Hanks and Spielberg are reuniting again to executive produce another show set within the same arena.

Masters Of The Air will tell the story of the Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, and is due to debut on Apple TV+.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the mini-series will run for nine episodes, and cost $250 million to produce.

On top of Hanks and Spielberg producing, the show is co-written by Graham Yost (Speed, The Americans, Justified), with episodes directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (No Time to Die), Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Captain Marvel), Tim Van Patten (Game of Thrones) and Dee Rees (Mudbound).

The cast is decked out with an impressive young roster, including Austin Butler (about to blow up thanks to upcoming movie Elvis) and Callum Turner (Fantastic Beasts), but there is also an incredible selection of young Irish talent to be found on the cast-list, including Barry Keoghan, Anthony Boyle (Derry Girls) and Fionn O’Shea.

JOE chatted to O’Shea in the run-up to the release of his new movie Wolf, and you can check out that interview – as well as our chats with his co-stars George MacKay and Lola Petticrew, and that movie’s writer/director Nathalie Biancheri – right here:

During our chat with O’Shea, we had to bring up Masters Of The Air, and this is what he told us about it:

“We’ve just finished Masters of the Air. Which will be out… at a time that I’m not allowed to say, so I’m going to rescind that sentence!

“It was amazing. I am such a huge fan of so many of the people in it, and getting to work with Cary Fukunaga, and Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks producing, it was mind-blowing. Yeah, I’m very excited for it to come out.

“And lots of Irish people working on it, too! Barry [Keoghan] and Anthony Boyle.”

In the meantime, you can check out Fionn and loads more Irish talent in new Irish movie Wolf, which arrives in cinemas on Friday, 18 March:

Clip via Universal Ireland

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