Trio called for HBO duty on "Pacific"
By Kimberly Nordyke
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Jon Seda, Ashton Holmes and Rami Malek have joined the cast of HBO Films' big-budget World War II miniseries "The Pacific," from executive producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.
They join previously cast James Badge Dale, Val Lauren and Joe Mazzello in the 10-hour companion piece to Hanks and Spielberg's Emmy-winning 2001 saga "Band of Brothers."
"Pacific" tracks the intertwined odysseys of three U.S. Marines -- Robert Leckie (Dale), John Basilone (Lauren) and Eugene Sledge (Mazzello) -- across the vast canvas of the Pacific, from the first clash with the Japanese in the jungles of Guadalcanal to the triumphant return home after V-J Day.
Seda ("Homicide: Life on the Street") is set to play Rodriguez, a friend of Basilone. Holmes ("Boston Legal") will play Sid Phillips, the best friend to Eugene who joins the Marines and is posted to the Pacific early in the war. Malek ("Night at the Museum") is playing Merriell "Snafu" Shelton, a small and excitable Lousianian who is initially hostile to Eugene.
"Pacific" starts shooting in August in Port Douglas, Australia. It will shoot there through year's end and then move to Melbourne. No airdate has yet been set.
"Pacific" is based on the books "With the Old Breed" by Sledge and "Helmet for My Pillow" by Leckie as well as original interviews conducted by the filmmakers and Hugh Ambrose, son of "Brothers" author Stephen E. Ambrose, who died in 2002. Hugh Ambrose serves as a consultant on the miniseries, which reportedly will cost nearly $200 million.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
