The Pacific: HBO's war drama in pictures

Band of Brothers proved an Emmy-award winning hit in 2001. Nine years later, HBO's new series will focus on the brutal conflict in the Pacific
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The project's executive producers are Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks – continuing their Band of Brothers partnership
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But The Pacific is described as a companion piece, rather than a sequel, to Band of Brothers
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'The Pacific is Band of Brothers goes to hell,' says the series' co-executive producer and writer Bruce McKenna
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'It’s more intense, it’s more personal, it’s more savage, and the reason why is because it’s an accurate depiction of what that war was like in the Pacific,' McKenna adds
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The series is based on two first-hand accounts of the war – With The Old Breed by Eugene Sledge, and Helmet For My Pillow by Robert Leckie – along with additional research material
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Spread over 10-parts, the format allows The Pacific to recreate battles at (sometimes great) length - highlighting the unrelenting nature of the war
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Which clearly comes at a cost. And with a budget of about $230m, The Pacific is thought to be the most expensive television production in history
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But producers insist that there is nothing gratuitous about the violence – rather than it is necessary to show the truth of the war, and illustrate its emotional effect on those fighting
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'The question we ask in The Pacific is not so much "How did they do it",' says Tom Hanks. 'I think what we ask is: 'How were they able to go through all this and come back and just get on with their lives?"'
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The cast includes Jon Seda, Joe Mazzello and James Badge Dale. They were all sent on a gruelling bootcamp ahead of filming
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But the most surprising thing, says actor John Seda who plays US marine John Basilone, was actually the emotional part of the role
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The miniseries was shot in Australia
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The production team found that the country's jungle and turquiose sea proved good doubles for the Pacific islands
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Quarries in the Australian outback were transformed into battlefields for the HBO miniseries • The Pacific begins on Easter Monday (April 5) at 9pm on Sky Movies HD
Photograph: Sky Movies