Described as a kind of companion piece to their 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's new HBO series, The Pacific, will begin filming this summer.

The Pacific focuses on three marines stationed in the Pacific: Robert Leckie, John Basilone and Eugene Sledge. The miniseries is based on the books With the Old Breed and Helmet for My Pillow, written by Sledge and Leckie, respectively. Hugh Ambrose, the brother of the late Band of Brothers author Stephen E. Ambrose, is also serving as a consultant on the new miniseries, and, along with Hanks and Spielberg, interviewed the men on which this new miniseries, a fictionalized account of their time as soldiers, is based.