Pedro Martin-Calero Brings Brutus Back to Life

2016 marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare and to mark the occasion the British Council has launched an initiative called Shakespeare Lives.

Part of that initiative involes the release of a film, each month of this year, which depicts a new interpretation of a scene from one of the Bard's plays. This month Colonel Blimp director Pedro Martin-Calero releases his near-futuristic take on a scene from Julius Caesar. 

Below, Martin-Calero explains his involvement in the initiative, why he chose that particular scene and how he was given unprecedented access to the Treasury and the Foreign Office to shoot.

How did your involvement in this project come about?

The British Council approached Colonel Blimp about the project. I think initially they wanted British directors to make all the films but Paul [Weston] at CB convinced them that they had to let me make one! The film is part of the Shakespeare Lives project, so there will be a different film every month for a different scene from Shakespeare, I’m really excited to be a part of it. 

How much knowledge did you have about Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar before embarking on this film?

Not too much, but when I was quite young I watched Leo Mankiewicz's Julius Caesar on TV and it blew my mind. When I received the brief I considered a few other scenes from other plays but Julius Caesar was always in the back of my mind. 

Did you receive a brief from the British Council about the sort of style they wanted for the film, or was it left up to you how to approach it?

They gave me a lot of freedom, they asked me to choose the play and the excerpt that I wanted and try to do something creative. They were also very keen for me to feature some British architecture which is a real interest to me in all my films so was definitely not a problem. The only other real condition was to make something that would attract more young people to Shakespeare, which I loved as part of the brief. 

It’s an unsettling film, especially the music and sound design; was that specifically to reflect the unsettling nature of the scene?  

I think the sound and music are both really psychological and helps a lot to create the mood of the film in an intangible way. We've tried to portray Brutus' thoughts and soul with sound. We worked with Neil [Johnson] from Factory and he did an amazing job. 

What was the thinking behind the ‘interference’ within the picture at a couple of points?

The idea was to give the film a futuristic edge, setting it in a near future, with this I wanted to say that although Shakespeare is old it actually can still feel contemporary and can continue to be contemporary also in the future.

I felt that for them to plot something as big as this assassination it would be too risky for them to all be in the same place. So the conspirator's gathering happens in a virtual space and they communicate with Brutus, who is elsewhere, the two real spaces are mixed trough holograms - something like a Skype call in a near future.

You had access to some rarely-seen locations; can you tell us a bit more about that?

I wanted to make a futuristic film shot in old locations, the kind of places that portray the amazing past of the British Empire, government and rule and tell through the architecture that there are some things about power that never change.

With the help of Visit England and the British Council we were able to secure filming in the Foreign Office and the Treasury. It was tricky to get the access we needed [and] I was so grateful to everyone who helped make this a reality. They are so hard to lock down its rare to be able to shoot there. I think the last thing they allowed to shoot there was James Bond Spectre, so I felt pretty lucky!

How important was the casting and how long did that process take?

The casting was essential, they are the most important part of the film and I knew if the actors weren’t good then the film wasn’t going to work. The process to find our Brutus was challenging, at one point it was nearly a woman but when I saw Mark Stanley's work I thought that's him, we have our Brutus. For the rest of the characters we cast in a more traditional way building it all out from our choice for Brutus.

What was the most difficult part of the production?

There were a lot of different elements to pull together and a lot of challenges but for me I really loved the whole process so I could never really say it was ‘difficult’. So, actually, I will say having to wake up early to go to the shoot. I hate having to  wake up early especially in London in February.

And the most rewarding?

Being in those amazing locations, working with this beautiful text and see how it came to live through the actors.The first time I heard Mark Stanley say his lines it really moved me. The whole project has been amazing, it's been like a gift.