Hanks Launches Spielberg Epic

More than 6,000 people have gathered on Utah Beach in Normandy today for the launch of the epic Spielberg television mini-series Band of Brothers. The American TV company HBO, which co-produced the ten-part series with the BBC, spent a month in France constructing a tented village for today's premiere and Empire Online was there to report on the proceedings. The first event of the day - which is the 57th anniversary of D-Day - was a press conference with Spielberg's co-producer, Tom Hanks who also directed one of the series episodes. Hanks began by explaining the lure of World War II as subject material. 'I grew up in a generation where the war was a distant memory, but still a palpable part of our lives. I'm now old enough to wonder what it would have been like to have fought in the war. I see in it a ongoing human dilemma that is still worthy of examination.' Responding to queries about the importance of historical accuracy in the wake of U-571 and Pearl Harbor, Hanks said; 'I've not seen Pearl Harbor or U-571, so I don't know anything about them, but it comes down to a question of taste. My personal taste would be to aim for as high a degree of accuracy as possible. I think we have a good ratio of what's accurate in Band of Brothers.' On hand to check the veracity of the epic - which is based on the true story of an army company that landed in France on D-Day and ended up liberating Hitler's mountaintop retreat - the Eagle's Nest - were 47 veterans from that company. The veterans' presence was particularly moving to one of the series' stars, David Schwimmer, who was also in France for the launch. 'It's important to keep their memories alive,' Schwimmer told Empire Online. 'A lot of my family fought in the world wars. I grew up listening to their stories. It's moving for our generation to see their generation here today.' Band of Brothers, which will screen in the UK this Autumn, is a particular coup for Britain. More than 90% of the crew were British, and the film's star is one Damian Lewis - a young Londoner, who plays one of the American soldiers and is in every episode. Adopting American accents clearly wasn't a problem for the young cast, who fooled even Hanks. 'Actors came up to me who I only knew as US soldiers,' he explains, 'and they're calling me Mate and talking in rhyming slang and I had had no idea that they were Britishers.' The press conference was followed by a memorial service for those who died, after which 1000 people will fill a huge marquee for the screening of the series' first two episodes. A sit-down dinner with the producers and veterans will end the day. Executive Producer Spielberg was unable to attend today's ceremonies due to post-production work on AI.