Here's a question that often comes up: whatever happened to that
AVG film I heard about? Here's what I know:
I sold the screen rights to The Lady and the
Tigers, and a would-be producer and two screenwriters
developed a script based on Olga Greenlaw's life. This project
now seems in limbo. (Note that
there's another script—such as it is—featuring Olga among
the AVGs. Click here for a look at it.)
Morgan Creek International in 2001 had an active project
entitled Flying Tigers. (Morgan Creek is a subsidiary of
Warner Brothers.) I've been told that it went as far as the
mockup of a bunch of Tomahawks, which are now in storage in
California somewhere. Filings in the
U.S. Copyright Office show that the screenwriters were John
Rogers for Morgan Creek, Joe Bateer for Stone Cutter Films and
Morgan Creek, Tedi Sarafian for Sarafian Film and Morgan Creek,
Pen Densham and John Watson for Columbia Pictures (quitclaimed to
Morgan Creek). One fanzine on the web suggested that this was a
remake of the 1942 John Wayne epic. Says another:
"Just to show how long this project has been in development, it
was almost filmed in 1995, starring Matthew McConaughey, before
he became a star.... It's likely the
final cast will likewise consist of a bunch of young guys who
aren't quite stars yet, along with an older actor playing AVG
leader Claire Chennault." Filming was originally scheduled to take
place in California and Mexico, but later was
shifted to Australia. It's still shown as active on the Morgan
Creek website, with the screenwriter named as David Ward.
There was quite a serious effort to make a Chennault film in
the 1990s. It had major backers and a title something like
Earth, Wind, and Fire. Supposedly it was based on the
Chennault-Bissell feud. I found some references to this effort on
the web, but they have since disappeared. The sponsoring company
was Paramount.
Wayne Adams Barker recorded a screenplay titled Flying
Tigers Never Say Die in 1994
About 1992, a Chinese friend told me that she had been hired
to work on the script of a Taiwanese film involving the love
affair between a beautiful Chinese girl and a gallant Flying
Tiger named Johnny Blackstone. It was, she said, a perfectly
dreadful script, and she soon went to work in China for the
Disney Panda epic. I named one of the heroes of my novel Remains in honor of this project.
Lewis Productions, Inc. and Embassy Productions, Inc.
recorded a Flying Tigers screenplay in 1984.
Already filmed:
And here's what I know about movies that relate to the Flying Tigers,
broadly defined. If the film is available on video at Amazon, there's
a hotlink to it.
The Flying Tigers (Republic, 1942). Here is the classic, a Republic
"B" flick starring John Wayne in a hilariously wrong-headed account of the
American Volunteer Group. Nice shots of small-mouthed P-40s (filmed at
the Curtiss factory with repainted fighters not yet delivered to the
USAAF) and fixed-gear Nakajima Ki-27s (taken from a Japanese film).
The very odd bomber is the the only Capelis XC-12 'Safety Aircraft Transport'
built. The movie ends with the
lads hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor, which of course
took place nearly two weeks before the AVG ever fired a shot in
anger. Paul Kelly played pilot Hap Smith and Jimmy Dodd played pilot
"Mac" McIntosh. The screenwriter, Samuel Ornitz was one of the "Hollywood
Ten," blacklisted in the 1950s. Two "dishonorably discharged" AVG clerks
had something to do with this project. Current videotape version is colorized.
Available at Amazon
on DVD disk
as well as used copies on VHS
tape.
Also available at Historic Aviation
on DVD disk.
The Sky's the Limit (RKO, 1942). Two AVG pilots on a spree walk
the sidewalks of New York in a musical comedy starring Fred Astaire.
P-40 mock-ups, stock-footage, models. AVG veteran R. T. Smith was technical adviser on this.
Available at Amazon on VHS tape
God Is My Co-pilot (1943). Dennis Morgan and Raymond Massey
star. Strictly speaking, not about the AVG at all, since it was based on
Scott's best-selling account of how he came to be commander of the
23rd Fighter Group. But if you're not fussy about how you define "Flying
Tiger film," this is the best of the lot, and one of the better
aviation movies filmed during WWII. Filmed at Luke AAF Aux. Field #7.
Curtiss P-40F's from 554 FTS Luke, B-25C/D/G Mitchells from 952 TS,
AT-6's dressed up as Zeros, and a Republic P-43 Lancer. One AT-6 glanced
off a B-25 during filming of the final mass air scene, killing at least
one pilot. Used copies may be available at Amazon
on VHS tape
Hers to Hold (1943). An AVG pilot (Joseph Cotton) falls in
love with a B-17 assembly worker (Deanna Durban).
China's Little Devils (1945). Harry Carey and Paul Kelly
as two AVG Flying Tiger pilots befriending Chinese orphans.
P-40 mock-ups, footage from the John Wayne film.