This is not an April Fools joke! Because Extreme Ops and Supercross left you clamoring for more, writer-director Chuck Russell will soon bring you another extreme sports action film, this one set in the world of "aerobatics" -- stunt flying. As in planes. (Sounds like an expensive hobby.) Northern Lights will "follow the adventures of three young pilots, each determined to be the best at extreme flying." It's not clear whether this or Mandrake will be Russell's follow-up to The Scorpion King.Varietydescribes the sort of stunt flying they have in mind as involving the pilots "taking their planes to 10 Gs and 300 mph, upside down, 10 feet off the ground." I don't know much about airplanes, so it's not clear to me whether this will involve something like the adorable plane in the picture that accompanies this post (which is what I found when I googled "aerobatics," though the idea of one of those doing 10 Gs seems off), something like the high-tech machines we saw in Stealth, or something in between.
In any case, this unfortunately sounds like one of those projects where a lot of people spend a lot of money bringing to the screen something that's not just terribly cinematic. How much dramatic tension can there be in watching people try to pull off stunts in an airplane? And will it really be that exciting to watch stunt piloting enhanced by a big effects budget? I guess we'll see soon enough.
