The 'Miasto 44' movie Panther

[Lert]

'Miasto 44' (City 1944) is an upcoming polish film about the ill-fated Warsaw Uprising of 1944. Trailer 1, trailer 2.

This movie will have scenes featuring a Panther. Now, the problem the production team faced was, where to get a Panther? Being a Polish production with limited budget they couldn't get their hands on a real one for rent and insurance cost, and they didn't want to CG one.

So, they built one.

This 'Panther' is built on a purchased T55 chassis. They chopped off everything above the fenders and threw it all (upper hull, turret, gun) away, then scratchbuilt a Panther upper hull and turret from sheet metal, and the gun from carbon fiber with steel reinforcements to keep the weight down. They actually went to Bovington museum to measure an actual Panther for this build.

This conversion was undertaken by hobbyists, rather than a movie production team. Anyone who's seen Saving Private Ryan (hopefully meaning everyone on this forum) will know what a horrible mockery of a german tank is made when a movie production team tries to make a german tank. However, this reproduction Panther is absolutely gorgeous. The proportions, the turret location, the shape, it all seems spot on to the naked eye. The only place you can see this isn't a real Panther is in the drive train. They wanted to fix that too, rebuild the running gear to a more historically accurate version, but they didn't have the budget.

Those two trailers and that 'Panther' clip really make me want to see this movie. For a limited budget eastern european movie, the production values seem off the chart. The 'Panther' is a work of art, and that's just one setpiece in a much larger overarching movie, which seems more a character piece set during the uprising than focused on the actual war.

Between Fury, Saints and Soldiers: The Void and this, this is a good year for fans of WWII movies.

[PainlessWolf]

Good Evening,
For the movie, 'White Tiger', the Studio commissioned a mild steel full size replica of a Tiger 1. It cost them a lot of money, nearly bankrupted the production company from what I hear and then to top it all off, was not ready in time for the film. I've seen a video of it in motion and it looks like the real deal. I'm surprised those guys aren't renting that Tiger 1 out to make movies with to defray the cost of it. 'Miasto 44' looks like a great movie! I'm looking forward to seeing it as well as 'Fury'
regards,
Painless

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlv6iuLT6-s

[dgsselkirk]

Don't forget the recent Stalingrad too! Great movie...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlMw8CjyV80&feature=kp

[MichaelC]

From the trailer I saw a bit of the Panther from the front and it definitely looks the part. Way better than the Tiger I in Saving Private Ryan. In Stalingrad they did a good job with 4 Panzer IVs, looks like new uppers on T34 chassis and even have turret space armour and side skirt......

dgsselkirk, I am done with Stalingrad so whenever you want to borrow it. I thought it would be more epic. As it turn out plays like an episode of "Coronation Street". The props are great though, lots of authentic looking MP38s and PPSh-41s, even a Stug D. CGI for the Stuka was amazing.

MichaelC.

[cannedheat]

both look ok films, may have to have a look for them ,well stgrad subtitled ?

[Saxondog]

Hey Lert, The link "So they built one" seems blocked to US viewing? Which is odd. could you post the link address so we may search it out?

[billpe]

Apart from the idlers, that is a very good conversion to a Panther. I agree with other sentiments, its much better than the Tiger conversions in other films. The one in White Tiger looks very strange.

[MichaelC]

both look ok films, may have to have a look for them ,well stgrad subtitled ?

Yes, and it has 5.1 DTS in both Russian and English audio. The English wasn't even that bad as it actually opens in Present day Japan after the Tsunami.

MichaelC.

[tomhugill]

Apart from the idlers, that is a very good conversion to a Panther. I agree with other sentiments, its much better than the Tiger conversions in other films. The one in White Tiger looks very strange.

The one in white tiger isn't supposed to be a replica tiger.

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning,
They built a replica Tiger for the film but were unable to use it. The Tiger in the film is a deck and turret on what looks to be an IS chassis. Very strange looking but that fits the film, I think, where it is portrayed as a Panzer Spirit of some kind. All of the WWII armor in use still makes this a great film to watch.
regards,
Painless