Hanks, Spielberg producing 'Band of Brothers' companion

HBO's long-in-development miniseries about the Pacific theater of World War II has finally received the green light.

Titled "The Pacific," the 10-hour miniseries is scheduled to begin production this summer in Australia. Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman, who executive produced "Band of Brothers" for HBO, will perform the same duties on the new project, which they consider a companion piece to the Emmy-winning miniseries about American soldiers in Europe during WWII.

"We're proud to be reuniting with Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg to complete the story of the American combat experience of World War II," HBO Films president Colin Callender says. "This epic miniseries is based on the true stories of three Marines whose experiences in the Pacific embodied the unique nature of that theater of war, and dramatize how it profoundly differed from the European front."

"The Pacific" is based on the books "With the Old Breed" by Eugene Sledge and "Helmet for My Pillow" by Robert Leckie, along with interviews conducted by the filmmakers and historian Hugh Ambrose, a consultant on the project ("Band of Brothers" was based on work by Ambrose's father Stephen, who died in 2002).

The story will focus on the experiences of Leckie, Sledge and fellow U.S. Marine John Basilone from their first action at Guadalcanal, through Iwo Jima and Okinawa and the war's end in the late summer of 1945. Casting will be announced later.

In addition to Hanks, Spielberg and Goetzman, several other members of the "Band of Brothers" team will work on "The Pacific." Tony To and Graham Yost will serve as co-exec producers, and Bruce McKenna will be supervising producer. Robert Schenkkan ("The Quiet American"), George Pelecanos ("The Wire") and Michelle Ashford ("Boomtown") are co-producers.

HBO hasn't set a target airdate for the project. The network has the eight-hour mini "John Adams" on its slate for next year, so it seems likely that "The Pacific" would debut sometime in 2009.