Tom Hanks has teamed with war movie legend Dale Dye as Executive Producer on No Better Place to Die, a film that will detail the airborne assault on D-Day in the same hard-hitting fashion as Saving Private Ryan did for the beach landings in Normandy.

Both Dye and Hanks worked together on that epic and they will mirror those dramatic sequences with the new project that focuses on paratroopers and glider-borne infantry that preceded the surface assault. The veteran actor is also slated to do a role in the new film.

“I’m very glad to be teaming with Dale on this project,” Hanks said. 

Dye will direct from a script he wrote that tells the story of a small band of paratroopers who seized and held a crucial bridge and an adjacent causeway to prevent German forces from counterattacking the landing beaches.

It has been called one of the bloodiest infantry fights in modern history and many experts have claimed the defense of La Fiere bridge for three crucial days in early June 1944 saved the Allied forces coming in by sea from annihilation. The paratroopers who held this vital river crossing were reinforced by glider-borne infantry and Dye says he will thoroughly explore this unique – and often fatal – method of getting soldiers into the fight.

“This is such an important and dramatic story that I’ve always wondered why no one has made a movie about it,” Dye said. “It’s a thrilling and inspiring look at how our American soldiers – back then and right now today – can overcome long odds with guts and determination.”

Dye has committed to using as many genuine military veterans as possible both behind and in front of the cameras in shooting No Better Place to Die. 

Dye and Hanks have a long-standing personal and creative relationship, dating back to 1994’s Forrest Gump. They’ve memorably worked together on several other films and television programs, including Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, The Pacific and Larry Crowne.