Tom Hanks has promised his '4-D' war film won't disappoint fans.

Beyond All Boundaries opens at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans on Friday and will be shown exclusively at the museum's new Victory Theatre, which includes 4-D elements such as props, simulated winds and shaking seats.

Tom, who produces and narrates the 35-minute film, said: "This is not just a widescreen movie - there's actual things that pop up, actual elements that come into it that put you in the environment."

The film incorporates vintage film footage, animation and sensory effects so audiences can feel the rumbling of tank treads and booming of anti-aircraft fire.

Tom said the planning and making of Beyond All Boundaries took about five years. He said one of the toughest aspects of the project was trying to decide what elements of the Second World War would be represented in such a short film.

What had to be captured, "without question," Tom said, were the economic and human costs and the war's roots in the civil rights and women's rights movements.

"We had a Jim Crow society when all that happened," he added. "We still had segregated armed forces ... We asked guys to go off and risk their lives and come back home and ride in the back of the bus. There was no way that brand of injustice could continue in our country after that war."

Wed 4 Nov