The Pacific is coming this 2009

I loved Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers. And with the upcoming new mini-series from HBO titled THE PACIFIC, I'm super excited since it Steven Speilberg and Tom Hanks are back to produce it.

Here's the info from HBO's website: THE PACIFIC is an epic ten-hour miniseries is executive produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman, the creative team behind the Emmy®-winning 2001 HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers."

THE PACIFIC is produced by HBO Films in association with Playtone and DreamWorks Television. The production was based at Melbourne Central City Studios in Melbourne, Victoria, with filming taking place in and around Melbourne, where U.S. troops camped in 1943, and multiple locations in Far North Queensland. Kary Antholis, senior vice president, HBO Films, is the executive in charge of the project.

THE PACIFIC is scheduled to debut on HBO in 2009. The miniseries tracks the intertwined odysseys of three U.S. Marines - Robert Leckie (played by James Badge Dale), Eugene Sledge (Joe Mazzello) and John Basilone (Jon Seda) - across the vast canvas of the Pacific. The extraordinary experiences of these men and their fellow Marines take them from the first clash with the Japanese in the haunted jungles of Guadalcanal, through the impenetrable rain forests of Cape Gloucester, across the blasted coral strongholds of Peleliu, up the black sand terraces of Iwo Jima, through the killing fields of Okinawa, to the triumphant, yet uneasy, return home after V-J Day.

Carl Franklin (HBO's "Rome"), Jeremy Podeswa (HBO's "Six Feet Under"), Tony To (HBO's "Band of Brothers"), Tim Van Patten (HBO's "The Sopranos") and Graham Yost (HBO's "From the Earth to the Moon") will direct episodes. Writers and additional directors will be announced as they are confirmed.

In addition to James Badge Dale ("The Departed"), Joe Mazzello ("Without a Trace") and Jon Seda ("Kevin Hill"), actors featured in THE PACIFIC include (in alphabetical order) Akos Armont, Jon Bernthal ("The Office"), Joshua Biton ("National Treasure"), Adam Booth ("Doctors"), Simon Bossell ("Hotel de Love"), Laurence Breuls ("Ghost Rider"), Tom Budge ("Last Train to Freo"), Linda Cropper ("McLeod's Daughters"), Brendan Fletcher ("Tideland"), Eamon Farren ("The Outsider"), Leon Ford (HBO's "Tsunami: The Aftermath"), Daniel Frederiksen ("Stingers"), Scott Gibson ("Lucky Number Slevin"), Joshua Helman, Ashton Holmes ("A History of Violence"), Andrew Lees, Rami Malek ("The War at Home"), Martin McCann ("Closing the Ring"), Ian Meadows ("Home and Away"), Toby Moore ("Joanne Lees: Murder in the Outback"), Rohan Nichol ("All Saints"), Henry Nixon ("Happy Feet"), Keith Nobbs ("The Black Donnellys"), Annie Parisse ("Law & Order"), Sam Parsonson ("Love My Way"), Jacob Pitts ("The Novice"), Rupert Reid ("The Matrix Reloaded"), Mitch Ryan, William Sadler ("The Shawshank Redemption"), Gary Sweet ("Down in Splendor"), Anna Torv ("Young Lions"), Sandy Winton ("Two Twisted"), Dylan Young and Ashley Zukerman. Additional actors will be announced as they are confirmed.

THE PACIFIC is based on the books "With the Old Breed," by Eugene Sledge, which was hailed by historian Paul Fussell as "one of the finest memoirs to emerge from any war," and "Helmet for My Pillow," by Robert Leckie (recipient of the Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Annual Award), as well as original interviews conducted by the filmmakers. Continuing the World War II oral history work begun by his father Stephen E. Ambrose (author of the book "Band of Brothers"), Hugh Ambrose serves as a consultant on the miniseries.

Helping out Miriam students on a project

I was interviewed for a school project by Miriam College students about writing and publications. Cheers to Mikka, Karissa, and their group mates for the graciousness. I heard from the students that the project was well received. The interview was done at Cibo in Gateway. I had minestrone soup by the way.

Basically, they wanted to know what were my influences in writing, how I went about writing, how stories are put to bed in publications, and what advice i could impart to Communication majors.

Cheers!

Great time. Great taste. Great experience.

While at school, I split time contributing to the Philippine Daily Inquirer and working at McDonald's. I wanted to get some experience in a fastfood chain since it was a dream to eventually put up my own restaurant one day. When I was interviewed for a position, I was hired as a manager trainer which I refused. I felt that there was more to learn from working the nitty gritty and doing the grunt stuff than starting from the top. People thought I was crazy when everyone wanted to be a manager and I didn't want. I said that I didn't need the money but I needed the experience.

I was eventually "demoted" and was sent to work at McDonald's New Frontier (since it was the closest one to school and the Katipunan branch wasn't open yet) where I received three consecutive monthly awards. I worked the opening shift and went to class in the afternoon which was actually wrong because it left me tired later on.

It was an experience that I would draw on later when I was living in New York and did the odd-job circuit. I made some good friends who I still speak with to this day and most recently we held at reunion at Shangri-La EDSA.

Go Go Chiaki

Yup. She captivated me in Kill Bill. Now Chiaki Kuriyama will appear as Ling Xiaoyu in the film adaptation of Tekken.

Word is she's been studying English so she'd break out in Hollywood.

Go Go Yubari will make a perfect match for Darth Rick.

My Family's New Year's Celebration

This New Year's celebration was the most fun we've had in years. Guess everyone's getting older and we all chose to have a blast after all these year's of chatting and drinking. Hahahaha.

I haven't been into firecrackers or fireworks since I was in high school. After that I hated them and preferred to stay indoors where I'd catch up with everyone and watch football on TV. Yeah, I know that sounds real lame. This year I was real excited to go after having missed the Christmas Party. It sure was real nice seeing my family. Seeing the kids run about made us all think when we were all that rambunctious. Can't wait for the next reunion.

The pix by the way were taken by my cousin Michael.