BATTLE READY WORLD WAR II MINISERIES BY HANKS, SPIELBERG COMING TO HBO.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

Tom Hanks may have represented the epitome of heroism in ``Saving Private Ryan.'' But he doubts he could have endured the epic hardships of the men depicted in his ambitious HBO miniseries ``Band of Brothers.''

The 10-part docudrama, premiering on the cable network next Sunday, follows Easy Company, an elite rifle corps which, among other things, parachuted into France on D-Day, fought in the Battle of the Bulge and captured Hitler's Eagle's Nest.

``I'm a talkative wise-ass, by and large, and being a part of the paratroopers means that you have to shut up and get down to it,'' noted Hanks, who executive-produced the series with Steven Spielberg and directed one of the 10 one-hour episodes, two of which will be shown at 9 p.m. next Sunday. The rest will follow each Sunday for eight weeks.

The $120 million production took more than seven months to shoot and features 500 speaking parts. On any day as many as 700 extras were employed with more than 10,000 working on the miniseries during the course of production.

At the Los Angeles premiere on Wednesday at the Hollywood Bowl, Hanks was more serious. Standing next to Steven Spielberg, who did not speak at the event, Hanks modestly declared, ``We owe (World War II veterans) our respect and our attention because they're our elders, and because they helped save the world.''

Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who commanded the Allies during World War II (and, subsequently, was himself elected president), reflected on the iconic nature of the second world war. ``We go back to this story time and time again,'' she said. ``We wonder if we ourselves would measure up to the sacrifices made by these men.''

Also speaking was Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, granddaughter of Franklin Roosevelt, president during most of World War II, until his death in 1945. ``If my grandfather were here tonight, he would toast your story,'' she said to the veterans in the crowd.

Throughout its 10 hours, ``Band of Brothers'' veers between quiet, personal stories of the men of Easy Company who fought together, and the colossal battle sequences. Like the memorable 20-minute Normandy sequence that opened ``Saving Private Ryan,'' the battle sequences in the series are a disorienting cacophony of random motion and explosions, with bullets whistling in every direction. Spectacular sequences include the soldiers jumping from planes under heavy fire, even as the planes transporting them are going up in flames and cracking apart. In the midst of this chaos, the human dimension is somehow underscored: One marvels that soldiers were able to keep their wits about them, let alone survive.

Interviews with members of Easy Company bookend the series; one veteran recalls volunteering to join the paratroopers, despite the apparent danger involved, simply because it paid better.

Hanks first came across historian Stephen Ambrose's best-selling account of Easy Company's exploits while researching his role for ``Saving Private Ryan.''

``I thought that Mr. Ambrose had stumbled upon the perfect avenue in which to communicate the breadth of the European war from beginning to end in the manifestation of Carwood and his comrades,'' he said. ``I told Steven that I thought we had something of a house on fire here.''

Telling their stories

The book was drawn from hours of interviews with survivors, as well as soldiers' journals and letters. Easy Company - 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, U.S. Army - took 150 percent casualties in the war and considered the Purple Heart a badge of office.

For his part, Ambrose said it was a no-brainer giving his material over to Hanks and Spielberg. ``A quick example: In almost all war movies before 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Band of Brothers,' '' he explained, ``where an American gets shot, it's either right here'' - he motioned to his forehead - ``or right here'' - he pointed to his heart. ``And he's dead. And his Commanding Officer can write home to the grieving widow or parents, 'He never knew what hit him. He didn't suffer.'

``Well, it doesn't happen like that,'' Ambrose continued. ``They do know what hit them. And they do suffer. And when you watch a Spielberg movie or when you see Hanks' 'Band of Brothers,' you're going to see that. You're going to see what a gut shot looks like. You're going to see what happened when a soldier's whole leg was blown off.

``You've got to look at that if you want to try to understand war. And I knew that Hanks was going to do it that way, and he did.''

Clifford Carwood Lipton, a member of Easy Company, said that the heroes of his generation were, due to the intransigencies of the age, simply built tougher. ``There was one thing that was quite different, and that was the Depression,'' he said. ``We men of 'E' Company grew up during the Depression. We knew hard times. We knew hard work. We knew that things did not come easily to us. So I'm sure that had some effect on us.

``I became a different person in the Army,'' Lipton continued. ``Before I went in the Army, I was a loner. What I accomplished, I accomplished myself and didn't think of looking to others to help me do what I felt needed getting done. In the Army, I became associated with other officers, and I was impressed by their ability to motivate and organize men into a group and accomplish missions as an organization rather than acting independently.

``And when I came out of the Army, I came out a different person. I came out as someone who wanted to organize things and accomplish things through joint effort with other people. And I continued the rest of my life operating in that way.''

A major campaign

``Band of Brothers'' was shot at the Hatfield Aerodrome, a former British aerospace facility where planes were built and tested. Some scenes in ``Private Ryan'' were shot there. The set (a village, which became 11 different European cities and villages) was 12 acres - the size of nine football fields. By the third episode of shooting, more pyrotechnics had been used than in the entire production of ``Saving Private Ryan.''

Besides requiring an enormous amount of stuntwork, to tell the story of Easy Company required numerous special effects, from making tons of snow by mixing cellulose with polymers and plastics for the Battle of the Bulge, to digitally turning small groups of actors into large armies.

HBO, for its part, is creating an all-out assault for ``Band of Brothers'' by pitting the miniseries against the networks' new fall programming. The fee-based HBO has about 37 million subscribers. Yet despite being in more than one-third of of all households, it has drawn ratings for many of its top series like ``The Sopranos'' and ``Sex and the City'' that outdo network shows.

The recent finale of ``Six Feet Under'' drew more than 7 million viewers (and was repeated later in the week). Last week, for instance, that would have landed in the top third of the Nielsen ratings.

Having collaborated with HBO on the Emmy-winning miniseries ``From the Earth to the Moon,'' Hanks took the ``Band of Brothers'' story to the cable network. ``They understand the type of authenticity we're going for'' he said, adding ``the stories can last as long as they need.''

Even so, Hanks and a team of writers had to make each of the 10 episodes stand on its own while leading into the next. Part of this was done was by having one character, Richard Winters (Damian Lewis), become central to the story as he rose from the ranks to become a major.

Hanks said that, while they weren't looking for stars to play the soldiers, they were looking for ``an enigmatic leader who, at the same time, is the exact symbol that you would want to have for a leader; a guy you can't explain, but who explains himself by his mere presence'' to play Winters. ``And Damian had that without question. As soon as he sat down, we knew.''

The real reason

Though World War II worship has become trendy of late, thanks to ``Ryan'' and Ambrose's books and Tom Brokaw's bestseller ``The Greatest Generation,'' Hanks said it deserves to be an enduring phenomenon and not just a flavor of the month.

``If you take honest stock of the key story of our lifetime, you must return to the years between 1939 and 1945, in which you can honestly say the fate of the world hung in the balance. And had it not turned out the way it had, then without question the world would be a very, very palpably different place than it is right now. ...

``The reason democracy is working right now,'' Hanks continued, ``is because democracy showed its finest moment back in this very altruistic time when American soldiers went ashore in France and in other parts of the world - not to conquer, not to plant the flag and not to keep it - but literally to liberate the world from true forces of evil.''

Ambrose added, ``The fascination with World War II is not going to fade. It was the greatest event of the 20th century. It determined that we're going to live in a democracy. And it will last. For as long as this republic lasts, people are going to be interested in World War II. 'How did they do that?' is what their question is going to be. How did somebody like Carwood go out there and do what he did? That's always going to be there.''

``BAND OF BROTHERS''

What: 10 part miniseries recounting the exploits of the famed Easy Company of World War II.

The stars: Kirk Acevedo, Jimmy Fallon, Colin Hanks, Damian Lewis, Peter McCade, David Schwimmer, Donnie Wahlberg, Rick Warden and Paul Williams.

Where: HBO.

When: Episodes 1 and 2 air at 9 p.m. Sept. 9. Repeated at 9 p.m. Wednesday. Subsequent episodes will air at 9 p.m. Sundays, repeating at 10 p.m. Wednesdays. The mini will also be repeated on HBO 2. Check www.hbo.com for listing.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) `BROTHERS' IN ARMS

Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg take `Private Ryan' one step further in a new HBO miniseries

(2 -- 3) Steven Spielberg, left, and Tom Hanks, executive producers of the HBO miniseries ``Band of Brothers,'' introduce a selection of clips from the project Wednesday at the Hollywood Bowl. At right, veteran Bill Guarnere, left, gives a kiss to actor Frank John Hughes, who portrays Guarnere in ``Band of Brothers.''

Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press

(4) DAMIEN LEWIS IN ``BAND OF BROTHERS''