in 1996, producer mark gordon pitched rodat's idea, which was inspired by the niland brothers, to paramount, which eventually began development on the project. spielberg, who at the time was forming dreamworks, came on board to direct the project, and hanks joined the cast. after the cast went through training supervised by marine veteran dale dye, the movie's photography started in june 1997 and lasted two months. the movie's d-day scenes were shot in ballinesker beach, curracloe strand, ballinesker, just east of curracloe, county wexford, ireland and used members of the irish army as infantry for the d-day landing.