... Warbirds is a Top Gun-like action flick, which will be incorporating heavy CGI: “it’s sort of the dog-fighting movie of all time they couldn’t make when they had the real airplanes because it’s too damn dangerous,” reveals helmer McTiernan.

John Travolta (Face/Off) has signed up for the lead. Queen Latifah and Johnny Knoxville have been approached. ...

While John McTiernan was being detained in a kleptocratic gulag, like Manny from Runaway Train, he didn’t let him break him. Instead he began working on a screenplay for his comeback movie entitled ‘Warbirds’. The film will star John Travolta. Below you can find the first poster for the movie.
Here’s the synopsis:
AMOS HAWKINS is an amazing pilot who works as an aerial firefighter – a water bomber. But that’s just his legitimate profession; he earns most of his money as an aerial mercenary. A Chilean man has hired Amos to bomb an oil field on a patch of land bordering Chile and Argentina. It should be a safe job, with no human casualties, but it’s big enough that it will require a team.
This movie is being produced by Hannibal Classics and will have the largest budget in their (small) history, although still no word on how big that will actually be. I’m guessing 20-30 million. McTiernan rejected Red Squad (for now) due to disagreements with the script, so he’s not going for a payday here. Travolta is a real pilot himself – could that add some interesting action dynamics?
Production begins in June, with a July 2016 release.