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n n n n CG•Live Action Seeing Red ©2012 Lucasfilm. induStRial light & Magic leadS a gRoup of vendoRS who piloted the tuSkegee aiRMen'S digital planeS foR lucaSfilM'S By BaRBaRa RoBeRtSon With a history lesson rolled into an action-adventure film, Lucasfilm's Red Tails took flight amidst, as often happens with a George Lucas feature, praise from moviegoers and pans from critics. The movie tells the story of the courageous African-American Tuskegee Airmen's fight against Nazis and prejudice during World War II. On The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Lucas described the movie he and director Anthony Hemingway created as "designed to be a film made during the war; patriotic, jingoistic, old- fashioned, and corny." Lucas financed the production, believing that a major studio would help fund the market- ing. It wasn't to be. According to Lucas, the studios didn't believe a movie like this without major roles for white actors could do well at the box office. But, Twentieth Century Fox re- leased Red Tails on January 20, and that first weekend it flew to number two at the box office (number one if you take into consideration Underworld's 3D screens), held onto number three the following weekend, and hovered in fourth place the week after, proving the naysayers and critics wrong. 30 February/March 2012 Red t ail S