George Lucas has hired John Ridley to write Red Tails, a WWII action adventure about the Tuskegee Airmen based on a story by Lucas, according to Variety. Lucas is executive producing the film.

The movie charts a group of young pilots as they overcame racism to form the Tuskegee Airmen, a distinguished group of fliers who broke the aviation color barrier to become the first African-American fighter pilots in U.S. military history.

The Tuskegee Airmen, whose planes were distinguished by the red-painted tails that give the film its title.

Lucas hired Ridley after reading L.A. Riots, the Universal/Imagine drama Ridley just turned in to director Spike Lee. Ridley's just getting off the ground on Red Tails after meeting with the surviving pilots at a convention in Texas.

Ridley said: "ILM will make the fight sequences come alive, and make you feel what it must have been like to be 19 and flying in a fighter plane."