George Lucas-produced WW2 movie Red Tails get a trailer

Red Tails , the World War 2 drama produced by one Mr George Lucas, has revealed its first trailer.

The movie is based on the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American combat pilots to fight in WW2, despite facing prejudice and segregation.

It's a rare Lucasfilm movie that doesn't centre on Indiana Jones or the Star Wars universe, though it comes packing the impressive visual effects you'd expect from Industrial Light and Magic.

There's plenty of potential in the trailer, from a powerful story that lends itself to big-scale movie-making, to the scenes of aerial combat that could be among the biggest of their kind.

If the subject matter proves to be handled sensitively, this could be pretty special, and with a January 2012 release planned, it will be eligible for Oscar consideration.

The cast includes Terrence Howard, Bryan Cranston and Cuba Gooding Jr (who has experience of this kind of thing with Men Of Honour ).

Director Anthony Hemingway is making his feature debut on the project, having helmed episodes of high-profile TV shows including The Wire, CSI: NY and Battlestar Galactica.

Check out the trailer now:

Red Tails is set to be released in early 2012.

Matt Maytum
Editor, Total Film

I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.