Miniseries filmed in Cove premieres Tuesday night

By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press 

“The Long Road Home,” an eight-hour miniseries filmed by NatGeo, will premiere on Tuesday, November 7 on the NatGeo channel. 
This spring, a production team was in the Fort Hood area shooting the miniseries, with some of those locations being in Copperas Cove. 
The show is based on the New York Times bestselling title by Martha Raddatz. The book covered the 2004 battle for Sadr City in Baghdad and followed the story of the First Cavalry Division soldiers which were part of that battle. 
The story also focuses on the home front, which is where Copperas Cove comes in. 
In February, Brock Allen Casting of Austin put out the call locally for paid background extras during the filming which runs through July. Various roles included U.S. soldiers and civilians, Army wives, as well as Iraqi soldiers, militants and civilians. 
Some of the main cast and crew were back in Central Texas last Friday evening, during which a premiere screening was shown for Fort Hood soldiers and their families at Abrams Gym.
Cast members Noel Fisher, Sarah Wayne Callies, EJ Bonilla, Jon Beavers, Jorge Diaz, Ian Quinlan and Darius Homayoun were in attendance, as was author Martha Raddatz, who is also the chief foreign affairs correspondent for ABC News; executive producer Mike Medavoy; and executive producer, screenwriter and showrunner Mikko Alanne. 
Military veterans and soldiers portrayed in the film, Eric Bourquin and Aaron Fowler, also attended.