Very timely for World Youth day 2011, this epic Hollywood movie with a powerhouse cast of both award winning actors and production staff, will be shown in 2011. The movie is entitled “There Be Dragons”, a Hollywood movie based on real events in history of Spain, most especially during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) which executed countless number of religious priests, nuns and brothers. The movie highlights real life events and people in the person of St. Josemaria Escriva which dwells into the deeper meaning of life’s purpose, love, faith and forgiveness. St. Josemaria Escriva is the Spanish founder of Opus Dei and became controversial not only during his life, but also upon his death, especially prior to his Canonization. He was Beatified by Pope John Paul the Great on May 17, 1992 in Rome (at the eve of the Pope’s Birthday) and was canonized by the same Pope after ten years on October 6, 2002. St. josemaria Escriva is the most recently deceased Saint as of this writing (he died in 1975. Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta who died in 1997 is not yet declared a saint). Below are the official still photos and trailer of the movie just recently released.

FILM SYNOPSIS

There Be Dragons is an epic action-adventure-romance set during the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War. The story traces the lives of two young men, Josemaria Escriva and Manolo Torres, childhood friends who are separated by the political upheaval of pre-war Spain to find themselves on opposite sides as war erupts. Choosing peace, Josemaria becomes a priest and struggles to spread reconciliation by founding the movement “Opus Dei” (work of God.). Manolo chooses war and becomes a spy for the fascists. Manolo commits heinous acts that will torment him until the end of his life. Only on Manolo’s deathbed will Josemaria’s message of forgiveness finally have a profound impact on him and on his estranged son, who comes to learn the truth of his father’s dark past. 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.

Charlie Cox as St. Josemaria Escriva

THE SCREENWRITER AND DIRECTOR

The film is written and directed by Roland Joffe, acclaimed director of The Mission, and features a stellar cast of young actors –Carlie Cox (Stardust), Wes Bentley (American Beauty), Rodrigo Santoro (300), and Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace). The director Roland Joffé said that There Be Dragons is “a story about people trying to find meaning about their lives. 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, an agnostic who was nominated for the Academy Award for his film The Mission which deals with Jesuits and liberation theology, 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.”

Joffé said that he has creative freedom over the project and likened this to that of St. Josemaria who “made no attempt to influence the people he worked with in terms of their politics. At that time, that’s pretty heroic. That’s a time when almost all human beings were faced with making extraordinary choices,” he said. He said that freedom is “the key to Josemaria, a key to his message.”

“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.”

Wes Bentley as Manolo Torres

THE MEANING OF THE TITLE

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 an abbreviation of “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.

PRODUCTION

The film is produced by Roland Joffé (who is the director and the writer of the screenplay), Guy J. Louthan, Ignacio G. Sancha, and Ignacio Núñez. The last two are members of Opus Dei.

Funds came from an investment fund created by Ignacio G. Sancha and Ignacio Núñez that has 100 private investors which include believers and several atheists. The television network and media company, Antena 3, the first private station in Spain, is also funding the film. Roland Joffé, the Director, is also funding the movie. The production services have been provided by Morena Films of Spain and Historias Cinematográficas of Argentina.

Rodrigo Santoro as Oriol

DEVELOPMENT

The New York Times, which called the movie a religious epic, reported the script was first offered to Hugh Hudson and Alejandro González Iñárritu who both turned it down. Joffé also turned down the offer to work as film 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.” Joffé then wrote the new script, travelling to Spain, Italy and South America to do research.

In the press conference held in Buenos Aires on 24 August 2009, Ignacio G. 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 is portraying Josemaría according to his own view.”

Olga Kurylenko as Ildiko

AWARD WINNING PRODUCTION

There Be Dragons also features Argentine production director Eugenio Zanetti, who won the Oscar in 1996 for Restoration.

Costume designer is Yvonne Blake, who won an Oscar for Nicholas and Alexandra and designed the costume of Superman.

Two-time Oscar winner Michele Burke is in charge of the special make-up effects.

Fr. John Wauck, an Opus Dei priest and a professor of Literature at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, serves 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. That’s the beginning and end of our collaboration with this film”.

To portray Madrid in the 1930s, a part of the movie was filmed in Lujan, Argentina. According to the movie’s official website, it will be released in late 2010 or early 2011. This is very timely for the World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid.