Spielberg and Hanks head for 'The Pacific'

The Hollywood heavyweights plan a new WWII miniseries similar to the brilliant 'Band of Brothers'.

Apr 25 2007

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are to collaborate on a companion piece to their hugely popular HBO miniseries 'Band of Brothers' entitled 'The Pacific'.

Spielberg, Hanks and Gary Goetzman will again produce the ten-hour miniseries, which follows the journey of three US Marines from their first clash with the Japanese in the jungles of Guadalcanal through to their triumphant return home after VJ Day.

The Marines in question are Robert Leckie, Eugene Sledge and John Basilone, with the script based on Leckie's book 'Helmet for my Pillow' and Sledge's 'With the Old Breed', as well as interviews conducted by the filmmakers.

'We're proud to be reuniting with Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg to complete the story of the American combat experience of WWII' said HBO Films president Colin Callender. 'This epic miniseries is based on the true stories of three Marines whose experience in the Pacific embodied the unique nature of that theatre of war, and dramatize how it profoundly differed from the European front. This was a different sort of war fighting a different sort of enemy.'

'The Pacific' will shoot in Melbourne (where US troops were stationed in 1943) and Far North Queensland, with the show set to air in 2009.