Where was the movie shot?

• Iceland - combat scenes will be filmed here because of restrictions on shooting on Iwo Jima - where 30,000 lives, Japanese and American, were lost in a 31-day battle in early 1945 - and because there are black sand beaches in Iceland that look much like those of Iwo Jima.
• Chicago, IL - Wrigley Field and Drake Hotel
• Washington, D.C.
• Japan
• Los Angeles, CA
• Mojave, CA
• New York, NY
• Hawaii
• Some parts of Iwo Jima Island

What is the film’s budget?

Estimated around $80 Million

When does filming start?

Production for started in August 2005 and ended mid November 2005. Currently, the film is in the editing and special effects stages at studios in Hollywood, California.

When is the film released?

October 20, 2006 - USA
October 21, 2006 - Japan (Tokyo International Film Festival)
October 25, 2006 - Belgium
October 25, 2006 - France
October 27, 2006 - Brazil
October 28, 2006 - Japan
October ?, ? - Italy
November 9, 2006 - Germany
November 10, 2006 - Finland
November 30, 2006 - Netherlands
December 22, 2006 - UK

I heard rumors that they were making a “companion piece” written by a Japanese screenwriter. Is the rumor true?

Yep! Eastwood wants to tell the Japanese side of the story, so he enlisted a Japanese screenwriter to help tell it. The film is named “Letters from Iwo Jima” and will probably film on the actual island of Iwo Jima. The film will also be entirely in Japanese with subtitles for the non-Japanese speaker. You can read more about this film by going to our “Letters from Iwo Jima” page here.

Is James Bradley, the author of the book, involved at all in the making of this film?

No. Dreamworks purchased the film rights to the book and that allows them to adapt the story as they see fit for the screen. Word is that the script follows the book very closely and James Bradley has called the script “brilliant”.

What will the screenplay show?

The screenplay for Flags of Our Fathers interweaves brutal combat with the personal stories of the men who raised the stars and stripes on Mt. Suribachi — their suddenly lost youth, and the price paid for their valor by the families they left behind.

In a recent interview, Bradley had this to say about the script: “When I first read the script, I cried,” said Bradley. “And then I read it again, and I cried again.”

More synopsis details available on our synopsis page.