William Shakespeare’s Richard III

‘I would like to come in every day for the rest of my life and film Richard III . I never want it to stop.’ Sir Ian McKellen, one of the great Shakespeare actors, spent the glorious summer of 1995 fulfilling that wish. The result is a breathtaking piece of cinematography, starring Ian McKellen and written by him with Richard Loncraine, the director. In both his introduction to the screenplay and the extensive notes which run parallel to the text, Ian McKellen describes the genesis of the film, how the Royal National Theatre’s highly praised stage production of Richard III was transformed into two hours of celluloid magic. He explains why this Richard III is set squarely in the 1930s and comments on the advantages as well as the pitfalls of trying to make Shakespeare more accessible to a general cinema audience. And finally he gives an insight into the way an actor prepares himself, both physically and mentally, to play one of Shakespeare’s greatest villains. Illustrated with stunning black-and-white stills from the film, this book provides a fascinating and intensely personal view of the creation and filming of a masterpiece of modern cinema.