Tom Hanks joins war veterans at Utah beach ceremony.

Описание: (7 Jun 2001)

1. Troops with flag pull back to wide shot
2. Dignitaries arrive and salute
3. Cutaway crowd
4. UPSOUND: (English) Introduction of Easy Company
5. Wide of Easy Company walking to podium Colonel Jones military attache to us embassy in paris
6. Extreme wide of scene
7. Speakers approach podium
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Colonel Jones, Military attache to US embassy in Paris
"To the veterans returning once more to this hallowed ground, we your descendants will remain forever inspired by your sacrifice and determination, by your courage under fire and by your compassion in the times of peace after the battle was won."
9. Cutaway veterans with flags
10. Setup of Tom Hanks at podium
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Tom Hanks, Executive producer "Band of Brothers"
"As filmmakers we certainly hope to entertain those in search of a great story. We also hope to educate those who are unaware of our long history. And we hope to enlighten those who are unappreciative of the cost of preserving our great freedom."
12. Veterans applaud
13. Wide of dignitaries preparing to lay wreaths
14. Dignitaries walking with wreaths, pull back to wide of memorial
15. Mid shot of dignitaries saluting
16. Close up Easy Company veterans, pull back to wide of scene

HANKS AND SPEILBERG RETURN TO NORMANDY

Saving Private Ryan veterans STEVEN SPIELBERG and TOM HANKS previewed the first installment of their new World War Two epic, BAND OF BROTHERS, to an audience of war veterans and government officials on a beach in Normandy, France, Wednesday.

The site of the screening, Utah Beach, saw some of the first fighting of the D-Day Landings exactly 57 years ago (June 6th 1944).

The expensive premiere re-united author Stephen Ambrose, on whose book the series is based, with many of the veterans who helped him write the book.

Hanks and Spielberg co-produced the £86 million, 10-part TV series about the D-Day Landings and the following 12 months that led up to the defeat of Germany.

It was part-funded by American pay-TV channel HBO, which organised the unusual premiere. Executive vice-president Richard Pepler said: "We decided that an extraordinary story and project like this demanded an extraordinary premiere."

Band of Brothers boasts a huge cast, lavish special effects and is thought to be one of the most expensive TV mini-series ever made - and yet, apart from a walk-on for Hanks and a role for Friends star, David Schwimmer, the show has no big name stars.

HBO spokesperson Anne Thomopoulos says that is intentional. " It is important that people don't just see this as Hollywood. We want to make people understand that had they been born 75 years earlier it would have been them going off to fight.".

The story follows the American soldiers of Easy Company from their initial training to the D-Day landings where they parachute behind enemy lines as part of the first wave of troops into Nazi held France. It follows them through the defeat of Germany's armies to climax with their daring capture of Hitler's fortified mountain retreat, the Eagles Nest, in 1945.

The series, which has been bought by the BBC in the UK has been criticised for suggesting that the Americans won the war single-handed and playing down the contribution of the other allies. But Hanks defends the series against these allegations. Indeed he, himself, directed an episode that focuses on the British war effort and he makes a cameo in that episode as a British paratrooper.



The series will be shown in the US from 9th September.

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