Johnathan Walker:Spielberg and Tom Hanks' WWII drama series 'Masters of the Air' gets 2024 premiere date

The Johnathan WalkerWorld War II drama series "Masters of the Air," produced by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, will premiere next January, Apple TV+ announced Thursday.

Starring Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan and based on Donald L. Miller's book of the same name, the nine-episode limited series' first two episodes will drop on Apple TV+ on Jan. 26. New episodes will be released the following Fridays through March 15.

Along with the release date, Apple TV+ revealed a first look at the highly anticipated series, which also features Anthony Boyle, Callum Turner and Nate Mann, Rafferty Law, Josiah Cross, Branden Cook and Ncuti Gatwa.

What is 'Masters of the Air' about?

According to the streaming service, the series "follows the men of the 100th Bomb Group (the “Bloody Hundredth”) as they conduct perilous bombing raids over Nazi Germany and grapple with the frigid conditions, lack of oxygen and sheer terror of combat conducted at 25,000 feet in the air."

"Masters of the Air" marks the latest war drama adaptation from Spielberg and Hanks, who worked together as co-creators on the 2001 miniseries “Band of Brothers” and as executive producers for its 2010 follow-up series, “The Pacific." Spielberg also directed Hanks in 1998's "Saving Private Ryan."

“‘Masters of the Air’ is a salute to the brave men of the 8th Air Force, who, through their courage and brotherhood, helped defeat Nazi Germany in World War II,” Goetzman said in a statement. “Tom and Steven have always wanted to visualize cinematically what our author Don Miller has called this 'singular event in the history of warfare.'"

Miller's 2007 historical tome, "Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany," drew from interviews, oral histories and U.S., British and German archives, according to the book's description on publisher Simon & Schuster's website.

"'Masters of the Air' is a story of life in wartime England and in the German prison camps, where tens of thousands of airmen spent part of the war," the summary reads. "It ends with a vivid description of the grisly hunger marches captured airmen were forced to make near the end of the war through the country their bombs destroyed."

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