The Pacific Information

The Pacific is a 2010 television series produced by HBO, Seven Network Australia, Sky Movies, Playtone and DreamWorks that premiered in the United States on 14 March 2010.

The series is a companion piece to the 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers and focuses on the United States Marine Corps' actions in the Pacific Theater of Operations within the wider Pacific War. Whereas Band of Brothers followed one company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment through the European Theater, The Pacific centers on the experiences of three Marines (Eugene Sledge, Robert Leckie and John Basilone) who were all in different regiments of the 1st Marine Division.

The Pacific was spearheaded by Bruce McKenna (co-executive producer), one of the main writers on Band of Brothers. Hugh Ambrose, the son of Band of Brothers author Stephen Ambrose, served as a project consultant.

Synopsis

The Pacific is based primarily on the memoirs of two U.S. Marines: With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene Sledge; and Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie. The miniseries tells the stories of the two authors and fellow Marine John Basilone, as the war against the Empire of Japan rages. It also draws on Sledge's China Marine and Red Blood, Black Sand, the memoir of Chuck Tatum, a Marine who fought alongside Basilone on Iwo Jima.

The miniseries features well-known battles with Japan involving the 1st Marine Division, such as Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, and Okinawa, as well as Basilone's involvement in the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Historian Hugh Ambrose, son of Band of Brothers author Stephen E. Ambrose, wrote the official tie-in book to the miniseries, which follows the stories of two of the featured men from the miniseries, Basilone and Sledge, as well as stories of Sledge's close friend Sidney Phillips and two men not featured in the series, Marine officer Austin Shofner and U.S. Navy pilot Vernon Micheel. The different cast provides a wider view of the Pacific theatre, allowing the book to include the fall of the Philippines, Midway, Philippine Sea and Luzon and expand the narrative to include depictions of life as experienced by prisoners of war, senior officers and the development of naval aviation. It was published in the U.K. and the U.S. in March 2010.

Cast

• James Badge Dale " Private First Class Robert Leckie (1920"2001)
• Joseph Mazzello " Corporal Eugene "Sledgehammer" Sledge (1923"2001)
• Jon Seda " Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone (1916"1945)
• Ashton Holmes " Cpl. Sidney "Sid" Phillips (1924")
• William Sadler " Lieutenant Colonel Lewis "Chesty" Puller (1898"1971)
• Jon Bernthal " Sergeant Manuel "Manny" Rodriguez ("?1942)
• Jacob Pitts " PFC. Bill "Hoosier" Smith (1922"1985)
• Keith Nobbs " PFC. Bud "Runner" Conley (1921"1997)
• Josh Helman " Cpl. Lew "Chuckler" Juergens (1918"1982)
• Henry Nixon " 1st Lt. Hugh Corrigan (1920"2005)
• Rami Malek " Cpl. Merriell "Snafu" Shelton (1922"1993)
• Brendan Fletcher " PFC. Bill Leyden (1927"2008)
• Martin McCann " Sgt. R.V Burgin (b.1922")
• Dylan Young " PFC. Jay De L'Eau
• Andrew Lees " PFC. Robert Oswalt ("?1944)
• Scott Gibson " Captain Andrew Haldane (1917"1944)
• Gary Sweet " Gy.Sgt. Elmo "Gunny" Haney (b.1898"1979)
• Joshua Bitton " Sgt. J. P. Morgan
• Toby Leonard Moore " Second Lieutenant Stone
• Nathan Corddry " PFC. Loudmouth ("?1944)
• Cariba Heine " Phyllis
• Nikolai Nikolaeff " Rear Echelon Man
• Matt Craven " Dr. Grant
• Damon Herriman " Merrin
• Dwight Braswell " PFC. Clifford "Steve" Evanson (1928"1945)
• Ben Esler " PFC. Charles "Chuck" Tatum (1926")
• Joshua Close " Major Edward Sledge
• Noel Fisher " Pvt. Hamm ("?1945)
• Chris Foy " Pvt. Tony "Kathy" Peck
• Leon Ford " 1st Lt. Edward "Hillbilly" Jones (1917"1944)
• Freddie Joe Farnsworth " 1st Lt. "Stumpy" Stanley
• Sandy Winton " Capt. Jameson
• Tom Budge " Ronnie "The Kid" Gibson
• Richard Cawthorne " Perle
• Anna Torv " Virginia Grey (1917"2004)
• Claire van der Boom " Stella
• Ashley Zukerman " 2nd Lt. Mac
• Caroline Dhavernas " Vera Keller
• Annie Parisse " Sgt. Lena Mae Riggi Basilone (1913"1999)
• Catherine McClements " Catherine Leckie
• Isabel Lucas " Gwen
• Penny McNamee " Hope
• Mauricio Merino Jr " Handyboy
• Brandon Keener " Charles Dunworthy

Episodes

Production

The Pacific was produced by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman in association with HBO Miniseries, Playtone, DreamWorks, Seven Network and Sky Movies. Seven invested in the project for the right to broadcast it in Australia. Nine Network has previously broadcast the HBO productions of Band of Brothers. Nine had a broadcast deal with HBO's parent Warner Bros., but then HBO started to distribute its own productions separately.

In April 2007, the producers set up a production office in Melbourne and began casting.

Filming of the miniseries in Australia started on 10 August 2007, and finished in late May 2008.

The score was written by Hans Zimmer, Geoff Zanelli and Blake Neely and was released on 9 March 2010. The miniseries premiered in the U.S. on 14 March 2010, on HBO.

Budget

Originally the project was estimated at $100 million to produce, but ended up costing over $200 million, making The Pacific the most expensive television miniseries ever created by any network.

According to The Malaysian Insider the series cost $270 million, with an estimated A$134 million of that spent in Australia, The Australian newspaper Herald Sun estimates that it brought 4,000 jobs and generated A$180 million for the Australian economy.

Filming locations

From August through November 2007 filming took place at locations in and around Port Douglas, Queensland including Mossman, Queensland; Drumsara Plantation, Mowbray National Park and beaches at Rocky Point, Queensland. Production then moved to rural Victoria. in the You Yangs near Lara, Victoria (from November"December 2007), then at a sand quarry on Sandy Creek Road near Geelong, Victoria till February 2008.

Melbourne city locations were used in late 2007 and through 2008 including Central City Studios at Melbourne Docklands (March 2008); Flinders Street (between Swanston and Elizabeth streets, 1"4 February 2008); the intersection of Swanston and Flinders streets (February 2008); Flinders Street Station ( 2"3 February 2008).

Other suburban locations included Bundoora, Victoria, specifically the Ernest Jones Hall at the La Trobe University campus, Bundoora (late May 2008); the Railway Hotel, South Melbourne (December 2007); Scotch College, Melbourne (December 2007); Melbourne High School (December 2007); Mornington Railway, Melbourne; Rathdowne Street, North Carlton and Victoria Park, Collingwood.

Broadcast

The series premiered in the U.S. and Canada on 14 March 2010. HBO Asia premiered The Pacific at 9 pm on 3 April 2010, with the first 2 episodes being aired back-to-back in the first week. Singapore, Hong Kong, and Indonesia had dual language available. Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Philippines broadcasts were available in high-definition on the HBO Asia HD Channel.

The Pacific began broadcast on 5 April 2010 on Sky Movies in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In Portugal, the series was broadcast on 5 April 2010 on AXN and in HD on AXN HD two days after the original broadcast in the U.S. In Denmark, Norway, Finland, France and Sweden, the series began broadcasting on Canal+; in Turkey, CNBC-e on 18 April 2010; in the Netherlands, on 7 April 2010 on Veronica; and in Greece, on Nova Cinema on 10 April 2010. In New Zealand, the series began broadcasting on 12 April 2010 on TV One. In Italy, the miniseries began broadcast on 9 May 2010 on Sky Cinema 1; in Germany, on 15 July 2010 on Kabel eins. In Japan, the miniseries started 18 July 2010 on WOWOW. In South Africa, the miniseries started broadcasting on 5 May 2010 on the Mnet channel. The series premiered in Israel on 18 July 2010 on yes and was shown on yes4 movie channel and yesHD2. It was also available as catch-up service on yesVOD in SD and HD. Estonian ETV aired the miniseries starting on 10 September 2010. In Sweden, the series premiered on 29 December 2010 on SVT and in Norway, the series premiered on 4 January 2011 on NRK1 (Norwegian Broadcasting), and catch-up service in HD on NRK Nett-TV. In Slovenia, the series premiered on 21 March 2012 on Kanal A. In Croatia, the series premiered on 14 April 2012 on HRT1. In Singapore, the series premiered on 16 April 2012 on MediaCorp Channel 5.

Marketing

Australia

Channel Seven, as a part of the channel's annual New Year TV preview of the programmes that it would be broadcasting the same corresponding year, released a trailer at 12:06 am, 1 January 2010. This trailer was unapproved by HBO. Ten days after it was released temporarily on the internet, it was promptly removed by HBO and Channel Seven due to copyright infringement.

The brief 1-minute 16-seconds trailer shows the disembarkation of the 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division on the island of Peleliu on 15 September 1944. It starts off with a platoon of Marines on an amtrac waiting for the ramp on their LST to drop to allow their embarkation towards the beach to commence. The trailer then cuts and shows the Marines in LVT-1s and DUKWs approaching Orange Beach as they take incoming fire from Japanese artillery and machine guns on Peleliu. The trailer then cuts again to the scene on the beachhead where we see the Marines from the earlier waves struggling to establish a foothold on the beach as they encounter heavy machine gun and mortar fire from the defending Japanese garrison. The voice-over of the Channel Seven trailer then erroneously describes the battle being shown as "the battle that saved Australia". The advertising campaign focuses heavily on a perceived emotive connection with the Australian experience of World War II, despite the series actually focusing almost entirely on the American experience of the South and Central Pacific Campaign.

The trailer focuses on one Marine in particular named Eugene Sledge (played by Joseph Mazzello), the author of With The Old Breed, one of the sources that the writers and producers of The Pacific have used for the miniseries.

The series broadcast commenced in Australia on Channel 7 on Wednesday, 14 April 2010, at 8:30 pm.

United States

The first official U.S. trailer for The Pacific aired on HBO prior to the season 2 premiere of True Blood on 14 June 2009. It showed footage of the three main characters, including a conversation between Leckie and Sledge, Basilone's marriage and numerous combat scenes. The trailer concluded with "2010" displayed on-screen -alluding to and confirming the series release date. A second trailer was released on the HBO website after which the date "March 2010" is displayed, giving a more specific series release date. On 14 January 2010, Comcast added on-demand content from the series, including a scene from The Pacific, interviews with the producers and character profiles.

Another trailer was shown in February 2010 during Super Bowl XLIV, depicting several combat scenes.

An extended trailer (3:47) to the miniseries can be viewed on the series' official website. See external links below.

Reception

The Pacific was very well received by critics, receiving an average score of 87% at review aggregator Metacritic. Time magazine's James Poniewozik named it one of the Top 10 TV Series of 2010.

Accolades

Primetime Emmy Awards

Category	Nominee	Episode	Outcome
Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or Movie	Anthony Pratt, Dominic Hyman, Richard Hobbs, Scott Bird, Jim Millet, Rolland Pike, Lisa Thompson	N/A
Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special	Meg Liberman, Camille H. Patton, Christine King, Jennifer Euston, Suzanne M. Smith	N/A
Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie	Remi Adefarasin	Part Five
Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie	Stephen F. Windon	Part Nine
Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special	Penny Rose, Ken Crouch	Part Three
Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special	David Nutter, Jeremy Podeswa	Part Eight
Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or Movie	Edward A. Warschilka	Part Five
Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or Movie	Alan Cody	Part Eight
Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or Movie	Alan Cody, Marta "?vry	Part Nine
Outstanding Main-Title Design	Steve Fuller, Ahmet Ahmet, Peter Frankfurt, Lauren Hartstone	N/A
Outstanding Make-up for a Miniseries or Movie (Non-Prosthetic)	Chiara Tripodi, Toni French	N/A
Outstanding Prosthetic Make-up for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special	Jason Baird, Sean Genders, Gregory Nicotero, Jac Charlton, Chad Atkinson, Ben Rittenhouse	N/A
Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special (Original Dramatic Score)	Blake Neely, Geoff Zanelli, Hans Zimmer	Part Ten
Outstanding Miniseries	Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman, Tony To, Graham Yost, Eugene Kelly, Bruce McKenna, Cherylanne Martin, Todd London, Steven Shareshian, Tim Van Patten, George Pelecanos, Robert Schenkkan	N/A
Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special	Tom Bellfort, Benjamin L. Cook, Daniel S. Irwin, Hector C. Gika, Charles Maynes, Paul Aulicino, John C. Stuver, David Williams, Michelle Pazer, John Finklea, Jody Thomas, Katie Rose	Part Five
Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or Movie	Andrew Ramage, Michael Minkler, Daniel Leahy	Part Two
Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or Movie	Andrew Ramage, Michael Minkler, Daniel Leahy, Craig Mann	Part Five
Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or Movie	Gary Wilkins, Michael Minkler, Daniel Leahy, Marc Fishman	Part Eight
Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or Movie	Gary Wilkins, Michael Minkler, Daniel Leahy	Part Nine
Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special	John E. Sullivan, Joss Williams, David Taritero, Peter Webb, Dion Hatch, John P. Mesa, Jerry Pooler, Paul Graff	Part One
Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special	John E. Sullivan, Joss Williams, David Taritero, David Goldberg, Angelo Sahin, Marco Recuay, William Mesa, Chris Bremble, Jerry Pooler	Part Five
Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special	Robert Schenkkan, Michelle Ashford	Part Eight
Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special	Bruce C. McKenna, Robert Schenkkan	Part Ten

Golden Globe Awards

Category	Outcome
Best Miniseries or Television Film