5 Things You Didn't Know About "The Pacific"

 Based largely on Eugene Sledge's With the Old Breed and Robert Leckie's Helmet for My Pillow, HBO's The Pacific is the highly anticipated 10-part World War II miniseries that follows the U.S. Marines through some of the most hellacious battles in the Pacific Theater of Operations.

Produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, The Pacific is in some ways a companion piece to one of the most celebrated miniseries of all time, HBO's Band of Brothers (also produced by Hanks and Spielberg).

As the March 14, 2010, premiere approaches, we present five things you didn't know about The Pacific.

1- U.S. Marines will get a free screening of The Pacific

The first thing you didn't know about The Pacific is the preferential treatment shown to current U.S. Marines. Captain Barry Edwards, a spokesman for the Marine Corps Motion Picture and Television Liaison Office in Los Angeles, told the Marine Corps Times that U.S. Marines will be given a free screening at various bases across the country.

This is altogether fitting since the series will follow the highly decorated 1st Marine Division, the oldest division in the United States Marine Corps. Units of the 1st Marine Division fought in some of the bloodiest and most important battles in the Pacific, including the Battle of Guadalcanal, the Battle of Peleliu and the Battle of Okinawa.

2- The Pacific is the most expensive HBO show ever produced

Early figures for The Pacific's budget placed it at $120 million, which had been the budget for Band of Brothers, but that was in 2007. More current estimates put the figure closer to the $200 million range (Tom Hanks even hinted at $250 million), leading the Hollywood Reporter to say it was "likely the most expensive" miniseries of all time.

Competition to land the filming of the series was, therefore, understandably high. Although Hawaii had been an early contender (and had an aggressive supporter in U.S. Senator and World War II hero Daniel K. Inouye), HBO ultimately went with sites in the Australian states of Queensland and Victoria.

3- Salmonella poisoning halted production on The Pacific

Another thing you didn't know about The Pacific is the destruction wrought upon it by bacon and eggs.

Production on the miniseries came to a brief halt in early 2008 due to salmonella poisoning. While filming inside You Yangs Regional Park in Victoria, as many as 30 members of the cast and crew became ill thanks to a catered breakfast of bacon and eggs. Five people required acute medical attention at a local hospital and one was actually admitted.

The incident was serious enough to earn investigations by the local Geelong Council and the country's Department of Human Services.

4- Each episode of The Pacific begins with a battle primer

Unlike Band of Brothers, each episode of The Pacific will begin with what Deseret News writer Scott D. Pierce calls a "mini-history lesson about whatever battle is being dramatized." The point of this little lesson is to place the battle in context for the viewer. According to Tom Hanks: "There was a thought that it would be hard to get people excited about a battle over a place like Guadalcanal or Peleliu without some historical context to why our soldiers are fighting at Guadalcanal on Peleliu."

However, neither Hanks nor Steven Spielberg wanted to include these primers, feeling that they were a waste of time.

5- Actor training for The Pacific included a full-scale amphibious assault

The last thing you didn't know about The Pacific is that many nameless members of the cast went through rigorous boot camp-like training to prepare for the miniseries.

According to Capt. Dale Dye USMC (Ret), the senior military adviser for the miniseries, Tom Hanks gave him the go-ahead to "raise, train and employ actors and special ability extras" to carry out all the action necessary to make the scenes as realistic as possible. This meant isolating them from their cell phones, waking them up at 0500 hours, serving chow at noon, and -- among a number of tactical undertakings -- training them to carry out a full-scale amphibious assault.David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

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