20 | It’s all about partnership | The Friendly Invasion project
Masters of the Air, thanks to VEE and VisitBritain Were it not for Visit East of England and its successful bid for its Friendly Invasion project to VisitBritain’s Discover England Fund (DEF), a $275m mini-series from Tom Hanks’ and Steven Spielberg’s production companies may not have happened. The nine-part Masters of the Air, based on the eponymous book by Don Miller and about the World War II Eighth Air Force bomb groups based mainly in Norfolk and Suffolk, will be streamed by Apple TV+ in January 2024… but it very nearly didn’t happen. The third and last in a trilogy, Masters of the Air follows on from HBO series Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Despite innumerable awards for the first two, HBO decided not to finance Masters of the Air. Screenwriter John Orloff had been primed to write the series.
In late 2016, as part of the £220k DEF Friendly Invasion project, VEE, then Visit East Anglia, were able to bring to the region Don Miller, John Orloff, and from Tom Hanks’ Playtone, executive producer Kirk Saduski. The Friendly Invasion project manager Ann Steward and Executive Director Pete Waters guided the group around the region, visiting memorial museums such as Thorpe Abbotts and Horham as well as The American Cemetery at Madingley. They spoke passionately at The Friendly Invasion launch at Imperial War Museum Duxford. The three went back to the US, reinvigorated to make Masters of the Air happen. Soon afterwards, Apple TV+ came on board with finance and filming took place on a purpose-built set in Oxfordshire in Autumn 2021 before post-production in California.
From top: Scriptwriter John Orloff, Masters of the Air author Don Miller and Playtone executive Kirk Saduski; Friendly Invasion project manager Ann Steward
