‘Airman’ Focuses on Unsung Hang Glider Heroes

Published by Jeff Leins on: October 20th, 2009

Disney and ImageMovers have hired Ann Peacock to write an adaptation of Eoin Colfer’s novel “Airman” for director Gil Kenan (City of Ember).  The $150 million production will be utilize the motion capture techniques pioneered by Robert Zemeckis on such films as The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol.

The title doesn’t refer to the military term for flight personnel in the Air Force.  No, this can’t be a movie focusing on actual heroes.  Just the fictional kind with makeshift costumes.  Nor is it about the kind of hero that pilots a fighter jet or swoops in on mutant wings.  It’s better.  Finally there will be a movie that centers on the graceful sport of hang gliding.  Yes!

I can barely contain my excitement.  Sure there have been scenes with actors hanging from fabric.  Kurt Russell in Escape from L.A and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle to name two soaring moments of cinema.  Plus who could forget Johnny Five in the classic Short Circuit 2.  Spider-Man even tried it, but his hang-gliding experience was short lived when he realized he could swing off of just about anything.  But a full-length movie?  About hang-gliding?  Can life get better?  I submit that it cannot.

Call the glider enthusiast fan club and have him take a look at this synopsis from Variety: The story centers on Conor, a boy who lives on an island off the coast of Ireland, where his father is the king’s bodyguard. When the king is murdered, Conor is blamed for the crime and thrown into prison where he passes the solitary months designing a flying machine that he will use to save his family.

Drinks are on me, everyone.  We did it.  A hang glider movie.