‘Masters of the Air’ Meets ‘Saving Private Ryan’ in First Look at New WWII Movie

World War II has provided some of the most stirring and powerful stories in cinematic history, for there is something powerful about the idea of ordinary people doing extraordinary things all in the name of freedom. However, there is something particularly horrifying about the experiences of the young men who fought thousands of feet above enemy territory. While movies like Saving Private Ryan and Masters of the Air have brought those experiences to life in spectacular fashion, an ambitious British production is preparing to tell a rather different kind of war story.

Collider can exclusively reveal the first behind-the-scenes images from I’ll Get By, an upcoming WWII drama starring Josh Bolt and Louis Ashbourne Serkis, following the start of production at Sony Virtual Production Studio in Norwich, England. The new photographs, captured by Tom Carlill, showcase the cast in their military flight uniforms as filming gets underway on the ambitious independent production, which uses LED Volume technology to recreate the terrifying experience of flying aboard a B-17 bomber during the war.

• The first film not in the English language to win Best Picture, in the Academy’s
  92-year history to that point.
• It took four Oscars in one night: Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and International
  Feature.
• It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2019 by a unanimous jury vote, the first Korean film
  to do so.
• The Park family’s modernist house was not a location. It was built from scratch on an
  outdoor lot.

• Seven Oscars, including three acting wins for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee
  Curtis.
• Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress.
• The visual effects were handled by a team of fewer than ten people, most of them
  self-taught.
• Ke Huy Quan had all but left acting for two decades before this role brought him back.

• Seven Oscars, including Nolan’s first wins for directing and for Best Picture.
• Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. both took their first Academy Awards for it.
• Kodak engineered a black-and-white 65mm stock that did not previously exist so Nolan could
  shoot those sequences on IMAX.
• A three-hour, R-rated drama about theoretical physics that passed 950 million dollars
  worldwide.

• Four Oscars, among them Best Picture and Best Director for Iñárritu.
• Emmanuel Lubezki’s win here was the middle of three consecutive cinematography Oscars,
  after Gravity and before The Revenant.
• Antonio Sánchez’s improvised drum score was ruled ineligible for the score category,
  which caused a minor uproar.
• The long-take illusion was built from a handful of extended shots joined by hidden cuts.

• Four Oscars: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem.
• Adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel, with much of his dialogue carried over
  intact.
• Carter Burwell’s score runs about sixteen minutes and is nearly inaudible by design.
• Roger Deakins was nominated twice that year, for this and The Assassination of Jesse James,
  and won for neither.

What Is ‘I’ll Get By’ About?

Written and directed by Brandon Ashplant, I’ll Get By follows a crew of American airmen whose B-17 is struck by anti-aircraft fire during a bombing mission over occupied France. Forced to parachute from their burning aircraft, the survivors find themselves stranded behind enemy lines in the aftermath of D-Day, where the front line is constantly shifting, and survival becomes increasingly uncertain.

Bolt (Nowhere Boy, Last Tango in Halifax) plays Technical Sergeant Donald I. Kantowski, alongside Serkis (The Kid Who Would Be King, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple) as Second Lieutenant Al Paduano. Cameron Ashplant (The Last Bus) is Second Lieutenant Walt “Virginia” Hawthorne, while Spike White (The Good Liar, The Sandman) is Lieutenant Raymond D. Deaton. Robert Rhodes (The Rapture, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple) is Captain Harold O. Bowen, and Reggie McHale (Masters of the Air, Surviving Black Hawk Down) is Sergeant Jasper W. Collier Jr.

Andrew Butler (Albert, In Another Life) is serving as director of photography, while the producing team includes Ashplant, Academy Award nominee Jonathan Tammuz, BAFTA member Patrik Krivanek, Georgia Clarke, John Whitby, and Alexander Finer. Richard Laverick, Stephen Ainsworth, and Stephen Collas serve as executive producers.

The project is being produced by Golden Goat Films, Hex Pictures, and Ephor Pictures, with support from Guernsey Arts, the Institute of Screen Arts Guernsey, and Norfolk Screen. Production on I’ll Get By is now underway, with filming moving from Norwich to Guernsey. An official release date has not yet been announced. Stay tuned at Collider for more