AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - July 2022 - 40

BRIEFING
Michael Chait and Steve Chait.
F IRST LOOK /
AOPA member produces new movie
Sharing his son's passion for film in 'Wolf Hound'
BY JULIE SUMMERS WALKER
S T E VE CH A I T IS a commercial pilot,
Beechcraft Debonair owner, and practicing
aviation attorney in Michigan. He
now adds " movie producer " to his list of
accomplishments. Wolf Hound marks the
feature film directorial debut of his son
Michael B. Chait. The film relies heavily
on the Chaits' aviation knowledge and
on aircraft and scenes from Michigan's
Yankee Air Museum in Belleville. The
museum's bomber plant hangar was used
for location and its North American B-25
Mitchell Rosie's Reply and Boeing B-17
appear in the movie.
Wolf Hound is inspired by true events.
It takes place in 1944 in German-occupied
France. A Jewish-American fighter pilot is
shot down behind enemy lines and must
work to rescue a captured B-17 Flying
Fortress crew. He discovers that the
Germans are loading a U.S.-marked aircraft
with a superbomb. Inspired by the
real-life German special operations unit
KG 200 that shot down, repaired, and
flew Allied aircraft as " trojan horses, " the
40
AOPA PILOT / July 2022
movie features the Boeing B-17, North
American P-51 Mustangs, a Supermarine
Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane, the Mitchell,
and a Messerschmitt Bf 109. The Spitfire,
Hurricane, P-51s, Bf 109, and B-25 came
from the Military Aviation Museum
founded and owned by Gerald Yagen and
located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Most of
the aerial sequences were shot in Virginia
Beach and Suffolk, Virginia. The Military
Aviation Museum's B-25 Wild Cargo was
used for aerial and exterior shots.
" Growing up around airports and in the
aviation world because of my dad, I managed
to make quite a few connections in
the airshow and pilot communities and
was fortunate enough to direct two commercials
for the U.S. Air Force/Air National
Guard after college, and then several for
The Yankee Air Museum, " said Michael
Chait. " World War II was always a fascinating
subject at my family's house. I am
a Jewish man from a Jewish family, so the
emotion and weight of what World War II
meant has always hit me hard. I wanted to
make audiences' jaws drop with incredible
aerial action sequences, with real World
War II fighters and bombers instead of CG,
and real ground action scenes with lots of
stunts, explosions, and gunfire, but always
putting character, emotion, and the underdog
hero story front and center. "
Michael Chait directed from the
screenplay by Timothy Ritchey. Craig
Hosking was the aerial coordinator and
lead pilot; he performed those same roles
in the 2017 movie Dunkirk. Along with
cinematographer Westley Gathright (who
worked with Chait on his airplane documentary
B-52: Three Generations) and
aerial director of cinematography Dwayne
McClintock, the team captured live action
footage with minimal use of digital effects.
Forty-five minutes of the film's 120-minute
run features aerial sequences.
The movie stars James Maslow and
Trevor Donovan and is in select theaters
and on demand June 3; home release on
Blu-ray and DVD is July 12.
julie.walker@aopa.org
AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - July 2022

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