How Elvis got Austin Butler to join Masters of the Air
It was Tom Hanks, who played with him in Baz Luhrmann’s film, who asked to cast him.
They are the Knights of Heaven Masters of the Air ! Callum Turner, Ncuti Gatwa and of course, Austin Butlerbring strength and charisma to the bomber pilots of the new series Band of Brothers. But also this “swag” fifties indefinable.
An attitude thatAustin Butler carried around throughout the filming ofElvis, in front of Tom Hanks. And it was precisely while he was filming the musical biopic of Baz Luhrmann that the producer of Band of Brothers had the idea of inviting his young friend into his new series.
“They finished filming Elvis a few days before we begin production of Masters of the Air“, tells us John Orloff, the showrunner. “And Tom thought there was a huge resemblance between Austin and the real Major Cleven. He also had that “swag” that the first pilots of the battalion had when they arrived in 1942. A certain attitude, casual and cool… Even if, as the years went by, this “swag” had disappeared and the guys just wanted to get away from this hell…”
And Tom Hanks did not just recruit Austin Butler. Steven Spielberg and he was once again very involved in this new chapter of Band of Brothers.
The two producers at the origin of the saga were at the initiative of Masters of Air, acquiring the rights to Donald L. Miller’s book about ten years ago. So even though they didn’t direct or star in anything,"They had their say on everything!” confirms John Orloff. The main screenwriter confides that he “worked very closely with Tom Hanks while writing the script. Steven was more of a kind of godfather who oversaw everything, who made sure that everything would be beautiful enough, captivating enough. They couldn’t really come to the set, due to COVID, but they supervised everything remotely.”
Masters of the Air is currently available on Apple TV+ and also on Canal+ in France.
