PBS to Air Ken Burns's 'THE WAR,' a New Seven-Part Epic Documentary About World War II, in September 2007

PBS to Air Ken Burns's 'THE WAR,' a New Seven-Part Epic Documentary About World War II, in September 2007

Burns to Show Highlights at the World War II Conference in New Orleans on November 16, 2006

Promotion for the Film to Begin this November to Coincide with Two Nights of Military History Around Veterans Day

ARLINGTON, Va., Nov. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) announced today that it will air the new Ken Burns documentary series, THE WAR, in September 2007. The seven-part documentary series, directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, explores the history and horror of the Second World War from an American perspective by following the fortunes of so- called ordinary men and women who get caught up in the greatest cataclysm in human history.

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Plans call for THE WAR to air over two weeks beginning on Sunday, September 16 (four nights the first week and then three nights the second week) from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. In addition to the national broadcast on PBS, THE WAR will also air simultaneously on PBS High Definition Channel with surround sound. PBS will repeat each episode the night it airs, stage marathon viewings on the weekends, and launch the film as a weekly series after its first two-week run. The series will also be rebroadcast on PBS's World Channel following the original broadcast. A web page dedicated to THE WAR will also be launched this week at pbs.org/thewar.

Burns will show highlights of the film at the International Conference on World War II at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. (The conference dates are November 16 - 19, 2006.) Participants will include: former war correspondent and legendary CBS newsman Walter Cronkite; WWII bomber pilot and former senator George McGovern; war correspondents Andy Rooney and Richard C. Hottelet; James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers; and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who will discuss the liberation of Eastern Europe and the Cold War; British author Sir Max Hastings; and noted World War II historian, Donald L. Miller. Burns will show highlights from THE WAR at a dinner event on November 16. (For more information on the conference visit http://www.ww2conference.org/)

Six years in the making, this epic 14-hour film, reminiscent in scope and power of Burns's landmark series THE CIVIL WAR, focuses on the stories of citizens from four geographically distributed and quintessentially American towns -- Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; and the tiny farming town of Luverne, Minnesota. These four communities stand in for -- and could represent -- any town in the United States that went through the war's four devastating years. Individuals from each community take the viewer through their own personal and quite often harrowing journeys into war, painting vivid portraits of how the war dramatically altered their lives and those of their neighbors, as well as the country they helped to save for generations to come.

"The Second World War was so massive, catastrophic and complex, it is almost beyond the mind's and the heart's capacity to process everything that happened and, more important, what it meant on a human level," said Burns. "Every person in the country was deeply affected by this war, whether in battle, at home, at work, or in the case of Japanese-Americans, in internment camps. By focusing on the personal stories of ordinary Americans who had extraordinary experiences, the film tries to bring one of the biggest events in the history of the world down to a very intimate scale. And in the end, we all begin to see, I think, that there are no 'ordinary' lives."

"PBS has a deep and abiding respect for the history, drama and tragedy of war," said John F. Wilson, Senior Vice President, PBS Programming. "It's critical that we capture the stories of the generation that fought and lived through World War II before they are lost to us forever. Serving our mission to educate and inform, PBS's goal for THE WAR is to reach into every home and classroom -- so together we can better understand what we as a nation experienced in those difficult years and what we as a nation accomplished."

Accompanying the series will be a companion book, written by Geoffrey C. Ward and introduced by Ken Burns, that will be published by Alfred A. Knopf; Ward and Burns collaborated previously on the unexpected bestseller The Civil War. PBS Home Video is producing a complete DVD box set that will feature "making of" footage and an interview with Burns and others involved in the film. The soundtrack will be released in September 2007 by Sony BMG Legacy Recordings. As with all of Burns's films, there will be an extensive educational outreach component and an interactive Web page that provides more information on the film, the battles and related issues.

"THE WAR is a stunning achievement in filmmaking," said Sonny Mehta, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of the Knopf Publishing Group, "and possibly the most complete rendering of war ever captured by a documentarian. It is an honor to be working with Ken and Geoffrey once again on this very special book, which promises to be a landmark publishing event." Knopf is announcing a first printing of 750,000 copies for the book, which will go on sale nationwide August 21, 2007.

PBS will begin promoting THE WAR on November 8 between the broadcast of three productions from Thirteen/WNET New York that deal with World War II: SECRETS OF THE DEAD: DOGFIGHT OVER GUADALCANAL, a modern investigation of the legendary World War II showdown between an American and Japanese pilot, using restored vintage planes and computer-generated recreations (November 8, 2006, 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. ET); WARPLANE, the story of the evolution of air power (November 8 & 15, 2006, 9:00 - 11:00 p.m.); and SECRETS OF THE DEAD: BOMBING NAZI DAMS, a profile of one of the strangest missions of World War II, the dropping of the bouncing bomb on Nazi dams (November 15, 2006, 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. ET).

In addition to Keith David's narration, THE WAR features first-person voices read by some of America's greatest actors. Tom Hanks reads the voice of Al McIntosh, the editor of the Rock County Star-Herald in Luverne, Minnesota, whose weekly columns poignantly tried to explain the unexplainable to his neighbors. Other voices include Josh Lucas, Bobby Canavale, Samuel L. Jackson, Eli Wallach, Robert Wahlberg, Carolyn McCormack, Adam Arkin and Kevin Conway.

THE WAR is a production of Florentine Films and WETA Washington, D.C., directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, written by Geoffrey C. Ward, produced by Sarah Botstein, co-producers Peter Miller and David McMahon, episode editors, Paul Barnes, Erik Ewers and Tricia Reidy, cinematography Buddy Squires and narrated by Keith David.

Corporate funding is provided by General Motors and Anheuser-Busch. Major funding is provided by Lilly Endowment, Inc.; Public Broadcasting Service; National Endowment for the Humanities; the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; and The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. Additional funding is provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts; The Longaberger Foundation; and Park Foundation, Inc.

For more information and photos go to pbs.org/pressroom.

About PBS

PBS is a private, non-profit media enterprise that serves the nation's 354 public non-commercial television stations, reaching nearly 90 million people each week through on-air and online content. Bringing diverse viewpoints to television and the Internet, PBS provides high-quality documentary and dramatic entertainment, and consistently dominates the most prestigious award competitions. PBS is the leading provider of educational materials for K-12 teachers, and offers a broad array of other educational services. PBS's premier kids' TV programming and Web site, PBS KIDS Online (pbskids.org), continue to be parents' and teachers' most trusted learning environments for children. More information about PBS is available at pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org Web sites on the Internet.

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