...But the Army fails to play its part in Hollywood's D-Day
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Your support makes all the difference.Britain might have triumphed on D-Day 1944 but they lost a battle to re-enact the famous event for a Hollywood film yesterday when they could not supply any soldiers.
The Hollywood director Steven Spielberg is to shoot a film covering the D-Day landings in northern France during the Second World War, and was eager for camouflaged extras to leap from boats and dash up the beaches along the Co Durham shoreline, which was to be used to represent Normandy.
Mr Spielberg asked for 1,000 soldiers for Saving Private Ryan, starring Tom Hanks. The Army, hampered by recent military cuts, could only provide 100 and even they were later withdrawn. So the director has chosen to focus his cameras across the Irish Sea where 1,000 soldiers are ready and waiting for their screen debut.
The UK's inability to mount a Hollywood invasion of Co Durham's beaches was disclosed yesterday by the Northern Screen Commission (NSC) which tried to attract the project to the region.
NSC's Commissioner, Paul Mingard, said they received full support from land owners and local authorities in the move to recreate the Allied Forces' storming of the French beaches on a stretch of coast near Easington.
The scene was set for "the staging of what would have been the biggest film production in Europe this year, with the most successful director of all time and Hollywood's most bankable star," said Mr Mingard.
When Britain failed to deliver, there were rival bids from France, which offered 1,500 army and navy personnel together with ships and landing craft, and from Ireland.
"We cannot hide our disappointment on behalf of the region and the people of Easington that we have been let down by Whitehall over a handful of soldiers," Mr Mingard said.
While they had the backing of the Territorial Army and ex-servicemen's organisations, "the contrast in attitude between the British and Irish governments demonstrates the distance we still have to go in fully supporting film in this country," he said.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "The Army was keen to try to help with this project, but this was always within the constraints of our real commitments."
The MoD concluded that there were no regular troops available. They would only have been able to provide extras by taking soldiers off commitments, training or leave.
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