Flyboys

Seeing the ads for Flyboys has made me want to see the film, but this article really makes me want to see it to support what they did and are doing with this film:

A group of filmmakers and investors including producer Dean Devlin and ace pilot David Ellison, son of Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison, spent more than $60 million of their own money to make and market a film no major studio would touch.

Not even Mel Gibson with his smash hit "The Passion of the Christ" spent $60 million. "Passion" cost $25 million, and independent films typically cost less than $5 million. Hollywood studios did not want to back "Flyboys" because they worried it wouldn't draw a big enough audience to make money.

But Devlin, whose hits include big budget "Independence Day," was passionate about "Flyboys" a tale of fighter pilots in World War I who risked their lives flying in rickety biplanes.

Devlin contends passion is lacking in studio moviemaking and says that if Hollywood wants to excite audiences, it must break away from box office-safe sequels, prequels, formulaic comedies and the same old dramas.