The Blue Angels Director Reveals What the Navy Didn't Want in the IMAX Documentary

The idea for The Blue Angels was the "brainchild" of producer and actor Rob Stone (Mr. Belvedere) and former Blue Angels Commanding Officer Greg "Boss" Wooldridge to celebrate the Flight Demonstration Squadron's 75th anniversary. Four years ago, they were struggling to get the documentary off the ground before contacting Glen Powell of Top Gun: Maverick fame, who then got filmmaker J.J. Abrams (Lost) involved with his production company Bad Robot. Abrams then recruited editor and director Paul Crowder (The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years), having worked together previously on the miniseries UFO, to helm what would become a tribute documentary filmed in stunning IMAX that puts audiences in the cockpit with some of the Navy's most elite pilots.
Collider was fortunate enough to team up with IMAX to show an advanced screening of The Blue Angels, where our own Steve Weintraub moderated an exclusive Q&A with Crowder. The director discusses his work alongside the fearless pilots, spending Thursday nights at the bar with them, getting to know their families, and earning the trust of these Navy experts as they documented an entire year with the Blue Angels in preparation for show season. From the sky-highs to the stuff the Navy wouldn't allow cameras to roll on, Crowder breaks it all down from start to finish, clearly still in awe of the experience. Despite the challenges of high-flying sequences, filming in IMAX, and more, Crowder opens up about the bittersweet end of The Blue Angels production, saying:
"I have to say, this started off as a project that I was very excited about getting into, but then when you spend a year on the road with these people, the best part of a year with all of them, the whole crew, and all the people that you worked with through that, it was so hard. It was like when they're at the end of the season when they go to do the drop of salute. It kind of felt like, 'Man, we don't get to do this anymore.' That was heartbreaking. I really have a great relationship with a lot of the pilots and people still. I try and stay in touch with as many of them as I can, and they were just so welcoming to us."
Check out the full conversation in the video above or the transcript below for all of this and more. Crowder also discusses his time jamming with Paul McCartney, working on UFO and his thoughts on extraterrestrial visits, and what's up next for the editor, including his mysterious J.J. Abrams series, Ron Howard's (Apollo 13) Jim Henson: Idea Man and the heartbreaking documentary from Kire Godal (Lion Warriors), Tolstoy the Tomato Thief.
The Blue Angels is in IMAX theaters beginning May 17 and will run for one week only. Following its theatrical run, the documentary will be available to stream on Prime Video on May 23.
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[@michaelmiklosofficial]

One of the best aviation cinematic documentary's on earth

[@sundragon7703]

When the blu-ray is released, I hope the extra's section is full of the great material that ended up on the cutting room floor.

[@kw900lkevin]

the documentary in 1991-92 was the Blue Angles around the world at the speed of sound, released in 1994

[@Solvet862]

Love to see Blue Angels at The Sphere. AMC didn't show the film in IMax.

[@FBW2000]

Curious why they had to paint out the Hula Girl that is on Bert’s dashboard…(?)

[@kawai99100]

Really? That's nostalgia. Hollywood couldn't handle it?😮

[@pkelly3463]

Dept of Defense and the "woke" generation.