Wow, Father Geek just received fun news for WWII and action movie fans. Micheal Bay & Company will be filming major portions of PEARL HARBOR right here in Texas, down at Spring Break Land, Corpus Christi. Man I would love to get down there to see some of this Air Battle/Carrier shoot. I'm a real fan of the Pacific theater air/sea warfare flicks. My Dad (Harry's Grandfather) flew B-17s in the Pacific field of operations. (my Mom was painted on the bomber's nose and his flight jacket) My best friend growing up in San Antonio's father was a Flying Tiger in China before Pearl and a Marine Dive Bomber pilot who sunk a Japanese destroyer during all the island hopping. Hearing my Dad and him swap stories was great entertainment growing up, and that connection made me really addicted to films like "30 Seconds Over Tokyo"(the Doolittle raid), "Midway", "The Flying Tigers", and "Tora, Tora, Tora."
This report should be a treat for the WWII hardware geeks out there...
I've got some more news on Pearl Harbor if you are interested and confirmation that Michael Bay and Co. will be coming to Corpus Christi, Tx to stage the USS Lexington carrier as the main Japanese war ship. COOOOOOL:
The Air Museum Planes of Fame, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving aviation history for the benefit of future generations has a few of its own planes involved with the production of the movie and is reporting the following:
"The TORA TORA Val is currently being rebuilt for use in this upcoming movie on Pearl Harbor. The Val was originally a Convair BT-15 that was sold to the civilian market in the 40's. It was modified to be a Japanese Val for the 1969 movie TORA TORA TORA. The modification consisted of an extra 3 feet of fuselage added between the rear cockpit and the fuselage, a large fiberglass dorsal fin, raised sides of the fuselage and lower canopies. The modifications also incorporated a Pratt and Whitney R-1340 and large fiberglass wheel pants. After the movie was completed the Val was sold to the San Diego Aerospace Museum. Planes of Fame collected the Val back in 1973 The Val has been in storage ever since. Just last month Disney contracted with us to use this aircraft in the upcoming Pearl Harbor movie. We will have it finished in 6 more weeks.
That Val, a real Zero, a P-40, and a B-25 of ours, and 5 of the Confederate Air Force's TORA TORA Vals and Kates, 2 actual Zero's from the Santa Monica Museum of Flying, Bob Pond's P-40, and John Paul's 2 P-40's will make up the fleet for the location filming at Pearl Harbor in April of 2000. After the Hawaii air battle shoot the entire movie attack fleet will make a move to the USS Lexington on the Texas coast which will double as the main Japanese carrier, then it will be made over to become the USS WASP for the Doolittle firebomb raid on Tokyo portion of the motion Picture."
I just thought you'd be interested in knowing that Bay and crew are coming to Corpus soon.
Thanks for putting up an awesome site!
-Nick Medrano
P.S> If you decide to link back, please make the link to: http://www.cinemenium.com/pearlharbor "The Pearl Harbor movie fansite." Thanks!
