CBS) Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks, who spent the 57th anniversary of D-Day on Utah Beach Wednesday, told CBS News he has been fascinated with World War II since childhood.

“I’m 44 years old and when I was growing up, the war - World War II - was very much a part of the popular culture,” Hanks said in an interview on The Early Show. Everybody's father had been in the war, he said, and most adults referred to past events as either “before the war” or “after the war.”

The star of “Saving Private Ryan” was in Normandy to premiere the first two episodes of a 10-part mini-series, he co-produced with director Steven Spielberg. “Band of Brothers” is to air on HBO starting Sept. 9.

The series, which also stars “Friends’” David Schwimmer, "Saturday Night Live’s" Jimmy Fallon, Donnie Wahlberg and Hank's son Colin, is based on historian Stephen Ambrose's nonfiction book. The book is about Easy Company of the U.S. Army's 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division.

 

“Band of Brothers” follows an elite group of U.S. paratroopers from their training base in Georgia to their landing in France on D-Day, their capture of Adolf Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden, Germany, and the occupation of Zell am See in Austria.

“This is not something that is neatly wrapped up in three hours,” Hanks said. “At the end of 'Band of Brothers,' you get the sense... that these guys had to go back to being cleaners and postal workers and construction workers.”

The mini-series has 500 speaking roles and 10,000 extras. Production in England, at some of the same locations where ”Private Ryan” was filmed, took eight months. Hanks directed the miniseries along with David Frankel, David Leland, Richard Loncraine, David Nutter, Phil Alden Robinson, Mikael Salomon, and Tony To.

Hanks became the first actor in more than 50 years to win back-to-back Bets Actor Oscars for his roles in "Philadelphia" (1993) and "Forrest Gump" (1994).