Tom Hanks-produced HBO Lewis & Clark miniseries to film in Vancouver

A six-hour HBO miniseries that chronicles the adventures of American explorers Lewis and Clark will be filmed in Vancouver later this year.

Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks and Edward Norton are among the group of people who are producing Lewis and Clark. It stars Casey Affleck as Meriwether Lewis and Matthias Schoenaerts as William Clark.

The miniseries is based on Stephen Ambrose’s 1996 book Undaunted Courage, a story that revolves around journals and letters written by Lewis, Clark, Thomas Jefferson and the Corps of Discovery. It details the story of their expedition through the Louisiana Purchase, a journey that lasted 16 months.

Ambrose is best known for writing Band of Brothers, a book that was also turned into a HBO miniseries by Hanks with help from Steven Spielberg.

A majority of Lewis and Clark will be filmed in Alberta this summer before production moves to Georgia and Vancouver towards the end of the year. It is anticipated that filming could take up to four months.

Here is HBO’s synopsis on the miniseries:

Lewis and Clark tells the story of America’s first contact with the land and native tribes of the country west of the Mississippi River. The miniseries follows the epic journey of the Corps of Discovery and its captains, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who traverse uncharted territory on a mission to deliver President Jefferson’s message of sovereignty as they search for his fabled all-water route to the Pacific. Lewis and Clark focuses not just on their incredible achievements, but also on the physical, spiritual and emotional toll the expedition takes on them.