Director Details Filming With Historic Aircraft

By Maria Morrison

With modern computer capabilities, a director could shoot an entire World War II action film without a single aircraft needing to take flight. That’s not what Michael Chait wanted to do, and that’s not what he did. Instead, his new film Wolf Hound features seven warbirds, bringing audiences equal parts drama and history. 

The movie features an alternate line of history in which a Nazi Luftwaffe squad captures and flies allied aircraft. While the real attempt during WWII was unsuccessful, this film considers what would happen if they had gotten further.

As a director and an audience member, Chait thinks CGI can look fake and video game-esque, and wanted to instead give audiences a real experience. He was greatly aided in this effort by existing connections in the aviation community; his father, Steven Chait, is a Wright Brothers Master Pilot. The senior Chait is one of the executive producers on the film, and lent his experience as both a pilot and an attorney.

With access to real aircraft, Chait wanted to take this chance to honor the pilots that fought and flew in WWII. His favorite scenes include some unnatural pairings in a dogfight and an early explosion of action between five aircraft at once. 

“It’s a tribute and homage to the real heroes,” Chait said.

The movie stars the B-17G Yankee Lady, based at the Yankee Air Museum in Michigan. The aircraft was flown down to Virginia Beach twice for filming, where it joined the rest of the aircraft from the Military Aviation Museum. Alongside the B-17, the film features a Supermarine Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane, two North American P-51s, a Messerschmitt Bf 109, and a North American B-25. 

Flying these seven warbirds would not have been possible without the aerial coordinator, Craig Hosking. The process was quite involved. It began with Chait saying what he wanted to do, and then Hosking turning the plan into something reasonable and flyable. From there, the pilots broke down the maneuvers and walked it all out in the hangar before turning to the skies. 

Filming was done in 45-60 minute chunks, resulting in hundreds of hours of footage. There were cameras in gyrostabilized mounts on the nose and tails, cameras in the cockpits, cameras on the ground. On the heaviest days, there were five cameras operating at once.

The result? In the 127-minute movie, roughly 45 minutes are filled with aerial shots.

This is Chait’s first feature film after making commercials for more than a decade. He said it was a “surreal” experience to introduce the film at AirVenture 2022. He recalled John Travolta introducing a movie in the same place he stood last week. When we spoke the day after his screening, Chait said he was still pinching himself. He also was asked for his first autograph by two children, something that he will no doubt remember for the rest of his career.

Chait is excited for more people to experience his movie. He encourages all aviation enthusiasts to watch the behind-the-scenes on the DVD, which peels back the curtain and shows the intricacies of filming such scenes. The film had its theatrical release in June and is now available to the public.

FMI: https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/wolf-hound