Band of Brothers mini series - strangecharms

Band of Brothers (TV miniseries) 3
Production
Budget and promotion
Band of Brothers was the most expensive television miniseries made by HBO or any other television network at the
time it was created. [9][10] This record would be superseded by Band of Brothers's sister show, The Pacific
(2010). [11][12][13]
The budget for Band of Brothers was approximately $125 million, which comes to an average of $12.5 million per
episode. [8] An additional $15 million were allocated towards the promotional campaign, which involved, among
other things, hosting screenings for World War II veterans. [9]
One of those screenings was at held at Utah Beach, Normandy. On June 7, 2001, 47 Easy Company veterans were
flown to Paris and then travelled by chartered train to the site, where the series premiered. [14][15] Also sponsoring the
miniseries was then German-American owned automobile manufacturer Chrysler, as its Jeeps were used to great
extent in the series, with an estimate of 600 to 1000 vehicles. [16] Chrysler spent $5 to $15 million on its advertising
campaign, based on and using footage from Band of Brothers. [16] Each of the spots was reviewed and approved by
co-executive producers Hanks and Spielberg. [16]
The BBC paid £7 million ($10.1 million) as co-production partner, the most it had ever paid for a bought-in
program, and screened it on the BBC Two channel. It was originally to have aired on BBC One, but was moved to
allow "an uninterrupted 10-week run" with a denial that this was because it was not mainstream enough. [17][18]
Negotiations were monitored by then Prime Minister Tony Blair, who personally spoke to co-executive producer
Spielberg. [19] Producer of comedy film An Everlasting Piece Jerome O'Connor alleged in a 2001 lawsuit against
DreamWorks, Spielberg's own film studio, that Blair also loaned military equipment and 2,000 troops, while
Spielberg gave Blair's son Euan a job in the production. [20] According to O'Connor, his movie was "sabotaged"
because DreamWorks feared it would interfere with Spielberg's receiving his British knighthood, which he did in
2001. [20]
Location
The series was shot over 8 to 10 months at the Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, England, on which various sets,
including replicas of European towns, were built. [15] This location was also used to shoot the film Saving Private
Ryan. [8][10] Twelve different towns were constructed on the large open field, including the towns of Bastogne,
Belgium; Eindhoven, Netherlands; and Carentan, France. [21]
The village of Hambleden, in Buckinghamshire, England was used extensively in the early episodes to depict the site
of the company's training in England and also for scenes later in the series.
The scenes set in Germany and Austria were shot in Switzerland, in and near the village of Brienz in the Bernese
Oberland and the nearby Hotel Giessbach.
Historical accuracy
To preserve historical accuracy, additional research was done by the various writers. One source was the memoir of
Easy Company soldier David Kenyon Webster, a Harvard English major at the time of his enlistment. His memoir is
entitled Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich,
published by LSU Press in 1994, almost 40 years after his death in a boating accident. Stephen Ambrose's book
quotes liberally from Webster's then-unpublished diary entries. Webster's trained eye, honesty, and writing skills
helped give the book and miniseries a tone not available in other G.I.s' diaries because it captured in detail the daily
life of the infantryman working his way with comrades across Europe.
Dale Dye, a retired Marine Corps captain and consultant on Saving Private Ryan, as well as most of the surviving
Easy Company veterans, such as Richard Winters, Bill Guarnere, Frank Perconte, Ed Heffron, and Amos Taylor,