The Pacific (TV Miniseries) - Production

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.

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

The series' score was written by Hans Zimmer, Geoff Zanelli and Blake Neely and was released on 9 March 2010.

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.