Synopsis: Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks have produced an epic 10-part World War II mini-series in association with HBO. Band Of Brothers is a true story adapted from the best selling book by Stephen Ambrose.

Starting in 1942, the story concerns the soldiers of Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. It begins with their rigorous training in Georgia, follows them as they parachute into France behind enemy lines early on D-day morning, and climaxes with their daring capture of Hitler's fortified mountain chalet, the Eagle's Nest retreat at Berchtesgaden, Bavaria.

Hanks and Spielberg have peopled their Easy Company with a cast of virtual unknowns. Controversially, the lead role, war hero and platoon leader Richard Winters, is played by a little-known English actor, Damien Lewis.

Band of Brothers was an enormous project, with a budget of around seventy million pounds ($120 million), a nine-month shooting schedule, a speaking cast of 50 and no less than 2000 extras.

DreamWorks used Hatfield Studios as the logistical base, the old 800-acre British aerospace compound where Saving Private Ryan was filmed. Villages and towns in Belgium, Holland and France, as well as a training camp in Georgia, had been meticulously recreated on the airfield under the ten million pound construction budget. Apart from a fortnight of filming in Switzerland, the entire series was shot in Southern England.

The Cast:

Episodes:
Episode 1: Curahee (premieres 09/09/2001)
The series begins with the men training in Georgia before D-day.
Written by: Erik Jendresen/Bruce C. McKenna
Directed by Phil Alden Robinson

Episode 2: Day Of Days
This episode is about the loneliness of command on Winters.
Written by John Orloff
Directed by Richard Loncraine

Episode 3: Carentan
Concentrating on a soldier called Blithe, 101 Airborne have there first major battle. They fight to hold on to Carentan in Normandy against a fearsome counter attack by the 6th Parachute Regiment (fallschirmjager). And the 17th SS Panzer grenadier Division.
Written by E.Max Frye
Directed by Mikael Saloman

Episode 4: Replacements
About the Battle of Arnhem and features the British paratroopers landing in Holland.
Written by Graham Yost/Bruce C. McKenna
Directed by David Nutter

Episode 5: Crossroads
Set in Belgium, and whilst dealing with Holland, the story is really about the cost of command on Winters.
Written by Erik Jendresen
Directed by Tom Hanks

Episode 6: Bastogne
Written by Bruce C McKenna
Directed by David Leland
The beginning of the Battle of the Bulge. A Soldier (PVT. Eugene Roe) turned medic, who fights to save the life of a girl, and how he deals with the emotional turmoil of seeing his fellow soldiers wounded on a daily basis.

Episode 7: The Breaking Point
Continuing with the Battle of the Bulge, Easy Company move out of the Forest and prepare to move into the village of "Foy", which is fiercely defended by the Germans.
Written by Graham Yost/Bruce C. McKenna
Directed by David Frankel

Episode 8: The Patrol
Written by Erik Bork/Bruce C. McKenna
Directed by Tony To

Episode 9: Why We Fight
Written by John Orloff
D irected by David Frankel

Episode 10: Points
The climactic capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest retreat at Berchtesgaden, Bavaria.
Written by Erik Jendresen
Directed by Mikael Saloman