There Be Dragons

For the archaic cartography expression, see Here be dragons.

There Be Dragons
Directed by	Roland Joffé
Written by	Roland Joffé
Produced by	Roland Joffé Ignacio G. Sancha Ignacio Núñez Guy J. Louthan
Starring	Charlie Cox Wes Bentley Dougray Scott Unax Ugalde Olga Kurylenko Golshifteh Farahani Geraldine Chaplin Rodrigo Santoro
Cinematography	Gabriel Beristain
Edited by	Richard Nord
Release date	May 6, 2011
Countries	United States Spain Argentina
Language	English
Budget	$30 million

There Be Dragons is an upcoming historical epic written and directed by Roland Joffé, a British filmmaker well known for directing The Mission, Captivity and The Killing Fields. It is a drama set during the Spanish Civil War which features themes such as betrayal, love and hatred, forgiveness, friendship, and finding meaning in everyday life. The film, scheduled to be released on May 6, 2011, includes the story of revolutionary soldiers, a journalist, his father, and a real life priest, St. Josemaría Escrivá, a recent Roman Catholic saint and founder of Opus Dei, who has been called the saint of ordinary life.

The movie stars Charlie Cox (Stardust and Casanova), Wes Bentley (American Beauty and Ghost Rider), Rodrigo Santoro (300 and I Love You Phillip Morris), Derek Jacobi (I, Claudius and Little Dorrit), Golshifteh Farahani (Body of Lies and Darbareye Elly), Dougray Scott (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Desperate Housewives), Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace and Max Payne), Unax Ugalde (Che Part 1: The Argentine and Bon Appétit), and Lily Cole (Rage and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus).

Story and themes

Director Roland Joffé said There Be Dragons is "a story about people trying to find meaning about their lives." The epic film tells the story of a present-day Spanish journalist, Robert, who is mending relations with his dying father, Manolo, who took part in the Spanish Civil War. The journalist discovers through his investigations that his father was a close childhood friend of Josemaría Escrivá, a candidate for sainthood, with whom he had a complicated relationship. Manolo became a soldier during the Spanish Civil War and became obsessed with a beautiful Hungarian revolutionary, Ildiko. She rejects him and gives herself to a brave militia leader Oriol. Manolo becomes jealous and takes a path of betrayal.

The film includes the early life of Josemaría Escrivá, a modern-day saint and the founder of Opus Dei, an institution of the Catholic Church which teaches that ordinary human life is a path to sanctity. Escrivá, who died in 1975, was canonized by John Paul II in 2002. Joffé, who initially shied away from the project, was "ultimately intrigued by the chance to dramatize the life of a modern-day saint, particularly considering Escrivá's 'liberating' view that a path to God could be found in an ordinary life."

There Be Dragons is a drama which explores themes such as betrayal, forgiveness, friendship, and finding the meaning of life in everyday life. According to Joffé, they are "making a film about love, human love and divine love, about hate, about betrayal, about war, about mistakes, about everything it is to be a human being."

Joffé, a self described " wobbly agnostic" who was nominated for the Academy Award for his film The Mission which deals with a Jesuit mission in South America, said that he is "very interested in the idea of embarking on a piece of work that took religion seriously on its own terms and didn't play a game where one approached religion denying its validity."

"Reconciliation matters" is the main take away message that Joffe expects from the viewers. Life, he said, is an opportunity to love: "It’s a choice, and in making that decision you become free. You do not become free when you hate. The weird thing is when you really love, you feel it like a breath of freedom, you think ‘Oh my God, I’ve chosen this, and it’s beautiful’.” He emphasized that Christianity is about love and the teaching of St. Josemaria "encourages a spiritual relationship with God in 'very simple things,' in cooking a meal, being with one’s family, or even having a fight." Joffé states that this is “a film about what it means to be a saint in this day and age."

The title refers to its theme exploring the unknown territories of hatred, guilt, and forgiveness, said the producer Ignacio G. Sancha. "There be dragons" is a shorter version of the phrase "here there be dragons" from the Latin hic sunt dracones, an ancient way of denoting in maps a place where there is danger, or an unknown place, a place to be explored.

There Be Dragons will be in Theaters May 6, 2011

Cast

The film stars Charlie Cox as Josemaría Escrivá and Wes Bentley as his friend Manolo. Dougray Scott plays the role of Robert, the journalist son of Manolo. Golshifteh Farahani plays Leila, Robert's girlfriend. Olga Kurylenko is a young Hungarian woman fighting with the Republicans in the International Brigades.

Olga Kurylenko plays a young Hungarian woman fighting with the International Brigades.

Rodrigo Santoro plays the role of Oriol, the young left-wing revolutionary that leads the "Iron Column" while Derek Jacobi is Honorio while model and actress Lily Cole is Aline. Unax Ugalde is Pedro, a young priest.

Production

The film is produced by Roland Joffé, who is the director. Guy J. Louthan and members of Opus Dei Ignacio G. Sancha and Ignacio Núñez are also producers.

Ignacio G. Sancha and Ignacio Núñez created a fund that has resources from private equity funds and other institutional and private investors. The television network and media company, Antena 3, the first private station in Spain, is also funding the film. The production services have been provided by Morena Films of Spain and Historias Cinematográficas of Argentina.

The New York Times, which called the movie a religious epic, reported that a different script written by Barbara Nicolosi was first offered to Hugh Hudson and Alejandro González Iñárritu who both turned it down. Joffé also initially turned down the offer to work as the film's director. "But he said he reconsidered after he saw a video of Escrivá answering a question from a Jewish girl who wanted to convert to Catholicism. Escrivá told her that she should not convert, because it would be disrespectful to her parents. 'I thought this was so open-minded,' Mr. Joffé said." At that point, Joffé signed on to direct, with the condition of writing a new screenplay from scratch and becoming a producer. "In writing his own script, Mr. Joffé came up with a convoluted plot in which a young journalist discovers that his estranged father has a long-buried connection to Escrivá," reported the New York Times. Joffé traveled to Spain, Italy and South America to do additional research in order to write his script. After an official credits arbitration conducted by the Writers Guild of America (WGA), the Guild has decided that the writing credits of the film will be "Written by Roland Joffé", which is the highest writing credit possible. With this decision, the WGA has confirmed that Joffé's screenplay is completely original and that the script written by Barbara Nicolosi bears no relationship whatsoever with the movie "There be Dragons".

In the press conference held in Buenos Aires on 24 August 2009, Sancha stated that "our role is to create a space of free creativity for Roland, who has absolute free hand as a filmmaker. The value of the project lies in the fact that someone completely independent from the subject or the Catholic Church, and who is an agnostic, is portraying Josemaría according to his own view."

Part of the reason director Roland Joffé wanted to share Josemaria's story on film was because of the manner in which the saint's faith influenced his day-to-day life. "Josemaria’s idea was that you find sanctity; you find your religious experience not only in liturgical things or in the church, but in the very act of living in your daily life," Joffé reported to CBN.com.

There Be Dragons features Argentine production director Eugenio Zanetti, who won the Oscar in 1996 for Restoration. The costume designer is Yvonne Blake, who won an Oscar for Nicholas and Alexandra and designed the costumes for Superman. Two-time Oscar winner Michele Burke is in charge of the special make-up effects. Stephen Warbeck, who won an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, has composed the original score. Richard Nord, who was nominated for "The fugitive" is the film editor.

Fr. John Wauck served as an on-set adviser, playing the same role that Daniel Berrigan played for Jeremy Irons in The Mission. Luis Gordon, a former spokesman of the prelature of Opus Dei, stated that "The film team asked us for help in gathering information and we gave them access to the documentation."

To portray Madrid in the 1930s, a part of the movie was filmed in Luján, Argentina.

According to the movie's official website, www.therebedragonsfilm.com, it will be released in Spring 2011.

Reactions

There has been controversy surrounding the film as it was accused of being propaganda for Opus Dei. It has also been accused of being a mere response of the organization to The Da Vinci Code.

Joffé denied the latter accusation, saying this is too expensive to be a mere response. The Opus Dei Prelature also denied involvement in the film, simply stating that the organization was asked by the producers for help in obtaining accurate information about Escrivá.

Actor Wes Bentley stated There Be Dragons rivals American Beauty in character."

See also

• Roland Joffé
• Josemaría Escrivá
• Opus Dei and politics

External links

• Spanish reviews for the movie
• Official page
• Therebedragons.info
• Fr. John Wauck priest of Opus Dei blogs on his experiences on the set of the movie There be Dragons
• A live Press Conference transcript about “THERE BE DRAGONS”, a film directed by Roland Joffe (October 29th, 2009)
• Video about the film from Rome Reports
• Empire on line
• Lifesite news
• IMDb
• EarthTimes
• America Magazine
• New York Times
• A compilation of data about the film with videos and images Template:Es