CASTING THE OTHER CHARACTERS
Chief Inspector Finch is the detective on the hunt for V, racing to stop his string of murders and find him before he fulfills his promise to destroy Parliament on the 5th of November. Leading the state's investigation into the mysterious and eerily similar murders of several prominent figures, Finch is determined at the outset to simply catch the elusive terrorist and his seeming accomplice, Evey.
However, as Finch unearths details of V's history, he discovers shocking state secrets concealed by the government he serves and his sympathies begin to shift. He starts to question that which he has accepted for far too long. The investigation thrusts reality and truth in his path, waking him from his acceptance of the state's oppressive stranglehold on the rights and freedoms of its people. Played by actor Stephen Rea, Finch guides the audience through the film's detective story as he slowly begins to uncover evidence that suggests that the British government may have something unspeakably criminal to hide. "There's an intriguing element of the hunter becoming very interested in his prey," says Rea of his character.
Rea feels the ideas in the story are timeless. "It's about what happens when government pushes people too far. It's a warning, a pretty ancient warning, about the function of government and its responsibility toward its citizens.
"Andy and Larry are doing interesting and dangerous work," Rea continues. "It's a highly ambitious attempt to move something from one medium to another. Graphic novels are obviously static, single frames, and you're transposing that to a moving picture. It's tricky and not entirely realistic, but I found that interesting. It was good to be working with something that has a certain heightened quality to it."
Rupert Graves is Dominic, Finch's lieutenant and junior partner in the investigation. "He undergoes a bit of an epiphany during the film," Graves points out. "He's not a man of great imagination. He's always put his head down and believed in the state, but he and Finch begin to realize that their government isn't as good as they had thought."
The villainous head of England's totalitarian regime is Chancellor Sutler, played by the venerable John Hurt, two-time Oscar nominee for his lauded performances in Midnight Express and The Elephant Man. Sutler's government rules by fear, ensuring submission of its citizens through intimidating means - secret police, constant surveillance and the threat of imminent and apocalyptic dangers. Censorship, propaganda, and subverting freedom of speech are the order of the day, and eliminating minorities is but a necessary casualty. "Sutler represents a society that believes that a fascist government is the best way to run a country," says Hurt. "Don't ask questions, let the Party get on with it and above all, don't criticize our authority."
Hurt starred as Winston Smith in Michael Radford's film 1984, based on George Orwell's chilling tale of a totalitarian society ruled by an omnipresent fascist leader. In V For Vendetta, with the exception of a few key moments, Sutler is predominantly seen on an oppressively immense monitor from which he delivers incendiary speeches to the country and erupts in vitriolic confrontations with his cabinet via digital conferencing.
In one comic scene, however, Hurt steps away from the screen to play opposite Stephen Fry in a mock variety show skit in which Fry's character, television host Gordon Deitrich, daringly - and dangerously - pokes fun at the ruling Chancellor.
Deitrich, a suave television personality hired by the government to produce a daily variety show, is Evey's trusted friend and confidante. But he has secrets of his own that must remain hidden from the state. "Deitrich must be dragged out of his moral torpor and make a stand," says Fry of the evolution of his character's political consciousness. "He rips up the censor-approved script of his nightly show and writes one which makes vicious fun of the Chancellor."
Most of Fry's scenes in the film are opposite Portman. "I'm immensely impressed by Natalie," he says. "I mean, what is she, 12 and a half years old or something? She's a barely divided embryo and yet she speaks multiple languages, is immensely accomplished and a natural film actress. She's very bright and good natured. She's quite something. She's going to be around at the top of her profession for a long time."
Rounding out the impressive ensemble cast is Tim Pigott-Smith, who plays Creedy, the head of Britain's secret police, and V's final and most dangerous nemesis. While Sutler appears to have the country tightly shackled, the real power rests within Creedy's grip. Ben Miles is Dascomb, Sutler's head of propaganda who cleverly spins V's explosion of Old Bailey on BTN, the government-controlled network, as an "emergency demolition" project.
Two-time Laurence Olivier Theatre Award-winning actor Roger Allam plays Prothero, the arrogant, vitriolic host of a news program called "The Voice of London." The wildly popular television show attracts millions of viewers who tune in to hear his latest rants, finding solace in the slogan that ends each of his broadcasts: England prevails. "He rants his particular beliefs, serving as a mouthpiece for the government's propaganda," says Allam. "His evangelism is a kind of nationalistic fascism."
John Standing, one of England's most respected stage, film and television actors, is Bishop Lilliman. This man of the cloth's religious convictions takes a backseat to his perverse sexual cravings, which ultimately prove to be his undoing. "I thoroughly enjoyed playing Lilliman," Standing remarks, "because he's slightly comic and utterly atrocious. Lovely to do."
The course of V's life, and subsequently Evey's as well, has been unalterably impacted by a woman named Valerie Page - a woman who neither of them ever met. Her story is one of the thousands of those who were tortured and killed by the government's callous cruelty and persecution of those it deemed unfit - and also a story of the small shred of hope that can ignite a revolution. The role of Valerie is played by Natasha Wightman, whose previous work includes Robert Altman's Gosford Park.
Acclaimed Irish actress Sinead Cusack plays Delia Surridge, a coroner haunted by her horrific past - a past she shares with V. "I never imagined that I'd be playing a vile human being," says the Tony-nominated actress. "I always thought I was rather soft and sweet and Irish! Instead I'm this vicious killer and for that reason it was a departure for me. This film is really a very interesting psychological study, set in a world that we hope we'll never have to inhabit."

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION - FILMING V
CREATING V'S WORLD, MASK and WARDROBE
V For Vendetta is set in London in the near future. Though still anchored by venerable landmarks such as Parliament, Old Bailey and Big Ben, the city, like the rest of the country, has fallen into a state of post-war isolation and depression. Chancellor Adam Sutler wrested incalculable power over this tightly-controlled society by championing his extremist Norsefire party as England's only safeguard against war, disease and famine. Yet Sutler's oppressive policies have stripped the culture of its spirit, vitality and hope. Food is rationed but fear is in great supply. Personal freedoms are an antiquated notion of the past, and no one dare raise a voice in dissent, lest they be "black bagged" by Fingermen - Minister Creedy's secret police force - and never heard from again.
Led by director James McTeigue, the V For Vendetta filmmakers strived to capture the essence of present-day London in their rendering of the film's grim socio-political landscape. "England has become quite soulless," says production designer Owen Paterson, who previously collaborated with McTeigue and the Wachowski Brothers on the Matrix trilogy. "We tried to create a London that is very recognizable, yet frozen by having become this totalitarian state."
Paterson and costume designer Sammy Sheldon used a palette of gray tones to evoke the bleak, regimented pall that envelops the city and its citizens. "In this environment, choice is limited," set decorator Peter Walpole notes. "You might be able to buy a car or a can of baked beans, but there's only one brand available. This was reflected in the television studio set, for example. All of the monitors are the same brand, and all of the desks and chairs are exactly the same."
The film was largely shot on soundstages and interior settings to underscore the story's tone of anxiety and alienation. "We wanted to create a sense of claustrophobia, so the film is very purposefully interior," McTeigue explains.
Filming began in March 2005 at Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam, Germany. With nearby Berlin doubling for a handful of practical locations, the production spent ten weeks on the Babelsberg soundstages before moving to London for a few weeks to shoot principal exterior sequences.
Paterson oversaw the design and construction of a staggering 89 sets for the Babelsberg segment of production alone, including the Jordan television tower, home to the government-controlled British Television Network; Victoria Station, a former stop on the ruins of the Underground, which the government shut down years ago; as well as another critical section of the Underground that V has commandeered for use in his plot to blow up Parliament.
The film's climactic sequence, set in the shadows of Parliament, took place on Whitehall, the iconic thoroughfare running from Nelson's Column at Trafalgar Square to the Parliament Buildings and Big Ben.
Home to such high-profile Westminster addresses as 10 Downing Street and the Ministry of Defense, the security-sensitive thoroughfare had never before been closed to traffic to accommodate filming. After nine months of negotiating with 14 government departments and agencies, including the Ministry of Defense, location supervisor Nick Daubeney secured unprecedented permission to close the street for filming between the hours of midnight and 5am for three consecutive nights. This gave the production only four hours of shooting time per night, given the setup and removal of equipment, personnel and the production's vehicles, including two army tanks.
As with the multiple permissions secured to film on Whitehall, the production also had to obtain authorization for the use of the two tanks and simulated weaponry during rehearsals and filming at the location.
The decommissioned ex-military tanks were acquired from a prop warehouse in the UK. Prior to transporting the vehicles to Whitehall for filming each night, the tanks were inspected off-site by government security personnel to ensure their weaponry was not functional nor had been altered in any way. They were then taken via trucks to the location - with no stops or changes to the tanks allowed during transport - and were accompanied by security officials at all times. (On screen and on set, the tanks moved under their own power.)
Background checks were conducted on every actor and technician who carried simulated weapons during production of the Whitehall sequence. Barcodes on the weaponry were scanned to track each piece and the individuals authorized to handle them.
Meanwhile, government security personnel surrounded the production at all times - some of whom were identifiable to the cast and crew, and others who maintained anonymity within the crowd to ensure the security of everyone involved.
This ambitious sequence also required costume designer Sammy Sheldon and her team to outfit 500 extras in replica V cloaks and hats, as well as fabricate uniforms, helmets and flak jackets for 400 extras portraying militia.
Following the completion of principal photography, visual effects supervisor Dan Glass and the V for Vendetta miniatures unit, led by Model Unit Supervisor José Granell, spent ten days detonating large-scale models of the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Old Bailey for key scenes in the film.
While some computer-generated effects were later fused with footage of the models being exploded, it was important to the filmmakers that the explosions, which carry great symbolic value, be as realistic as possible, so they opted for the practical effect of detonating physical replicas of the buildings over CGI.
"The models provide a real, tangible environment," Granell explains, "and when you're dealing with physical elements such as water and fire, and especially pyrotechnics, you get a better look when you have real, physical events taking place. With CGI, unless you actually deliberately create them, you don't get any accidents - so you don't get that essential feeling of nature doing its own thing."
The filmmakers chose to utilize large-scale models in order to create a realistic relationship between the size of the buildings and the pyrotechnic events being filmed. Built in eleven weeks at Shepperton Studios by the London firm Cinesite, the plaster models were constructed at one seventh scale, which yielded an impressive 20-foot replica of Old Bailey, with the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben towering at approximately 30 feet high and the length of Parliament stretching 42 feet long.
During the course of their research, Granell and his team studied documentary footage of actual stone buildings being exploded to get a feeling for how stone reacts to detonation. From there they began their experiments with materials. Since plaster breaks up well and behaves most like stone when detonated, the models were predominantly constructed with cast plaster. The team experimented with a variety of plaster recipes for different areas of the model - some components had to be more rigid, while some of the finer detail necessitated a weaker version of the plaster.
Prior to the final filming, an effects element shoot was held during which the team performed individual pyrotechnic explosions that they would later be able to use in post-production. They tested a variety of combinations of types of charges and different varieties of plaster, to see how each pairing performed on film. "For instance, one of the problems we found is that the weakened plaster we used tended to create too much dust," says Granell. "And the one thing I didn't want to do was hide any of the color of the actual combustible elements - the pyrotechnic charges, the flames, all of those details. So we adjusted the plaster recipe to remedy the problem."
The team had to study the architecture of the Old Bailey and Parliament buildings inside and out, in order to accurately surmise how the structures would react to the detonations. For instance, how fast the explosions would travel through the building, how the structures would break apart - which areas would give first, which would be able to withstand the blast, what the size of the fragments would be and how fast and far they would travel.
In addition to this structural accuracy, the designers studied the outer detail of the legendary buildings to achieve exactly the right look. "You've got to be a real stickler for detail," says Granell, "and pay close attention to how the real building looks - such as design elements or the aging of the stone - so that you can match it. You have to keep in mind that you're dealing with structures that are potentially very familiar to a lot of people, who will be in a position to judge whether they look right or not."
All of the research, time and work put into creating the incredible structures resulted in extremely convincing detailed models and detonations that look authentic onscreen and performed perfectly during filming. "The buildings looked just fantastic," says Granell. "I apologized in advance to the chaps who were working for us because they put a lot of hours into this and the miniatures looked beautiful - until we blew them up. So the only thing I could do was make sure we did a good job of blowing it up, and make it all worthwhile!"

CREATING V'S WORLD
On historic Stage 2, where Fritz Lang's classic futuristic thriller Metropolis was filmed in 1927, the cast and crew of 500 inhabited the grandest and most elaborate of Paterson's sets: the labyrinthine Shadow Gallery.
Like V himself, his subterranean lair is elegant, mysterious and enthralling - a stylish cross between a crypt and a church, carved from the passageways beneath the city. "I envisioned the Shadow Gallery as an expanded ace of clubs, with a central space and chambers spiralling outwards from the middle," McTeigue says of the sprawling set, which includes a library, V's dressing room, a kitchen and a screening room/lounge. "It feels like it's located beneath some great cultural institution that has long been closed down by the government."
"The Shadow Gallery is the sort of place that could exist below St. Paul's Cathedral or Westminster Abbey," Paterson elaborates. "It's an arched, Tudor kind of space where you can imagine someone bricked up a door years ago and forgot it was ever there."
V's vaulted hideaway also serves as a museum of sorts, a home to his extensive collection of music, film, literature, philosophy and art - all of which has been banned by the government's Ministry of Objectionable Material. "V has become a caretaker of everything that the government won't allow," says McTeigue.
"He's a guardian of a culture that is in danger of being lost forever," adds Hugo Weaving. "I suspect there are a number of people in this world who are like him, who have their own hoards, their own treasure troves like the Shadow Gallery."
One of the biggest challenges for set decorator Peter Walpole and the art department was securing the rights to reproduce the Gallery's myriad iconic works - and then replicating them and dressing the numerous Gallery chambers. "We had to get an enormous variety of objects - everything from Picassos to Turners, modern art to comic books," Walpole says.
Walpole's team also had to collect and arrange hundreds of books to dress V's makeshift library. It is here that Evey first awakens in the Shadow Gallery and finds herself surrounded by stacks and stacks of treasonous volumes.
"As you enter the room, the books are piled low, as though they've been blown in like a bunch of leaves," Walpole describes. "But as you move toward the far end, the piles grow until they reach the ceiling and line the walls, almost like a snowdrift."
To give McTeigue and the crew maximum flexibility while filming in the library, many of the books were fastened together like building blocks, so the stacks could be moved quickly and reconnected like Lego components, rather than moved piecemeal.
During production of this scene, Natalie Portman recalls, "James brought in a clipping from a newspaper with a photo of a library that was discvovered in Iraq. The government had shut it down and there were piles and piles of books everywhere. It was sort of incredible, having this real life parallel as we were filming."

CREATING THE MASK and V'S WARDROBE
In addition to designing the sets, Paterson also collaborated with McTeigue and art director Stephan Gessler on the creation of V's eerie mask. More than a mere disguise, an affect of his theatrical personality or a veil for his hideously disfigured face, V's mask becomes a powerful symbol of the ideas of freedom and expression he represents.
Paterson's design was modeled on V's iconic visage from the graphic novel, which illustrator David Lloyd based on the eponymous masks worn in tribute to traitor-turned-folk hero Guy Fawkes. But as drawn by Lloyd, V's mask takes on different moods and expressions from frame to frame.
McTeigue opted to create a "fixed" façade, rather than using CGI or a flexible mask that could be manipulated to form expressions. "I wanted the face, even though it's very distinct, to have a 'universality' to it," he says. "I knew that if we achieved the right look for the mask, we would be able to tonally and atmospherically change the way it appears on camera through the lighting design and Hugo's performance."
The result, which the director describes as "a cross between a traditional Guy Fawkes mask and a Harlequin mask," was sculpted from clay - a considerably more imperfect and painstaking process than the modern mold-making method of computer cyber-scanning - then cast in fiberglass and painted with an airbrush to create a porcelain doll-like quality.
"We had a very fine sculptor named Berndt Wenzel who patiently went through seven generations of carving the mask from clay to get the right personality," Paterson says. "We needed to capture the perfect generic look so that when we lit the mask in different ways, it would take on different expressions."
Bringing the mask to life was "definitely a collaborative effort," Weaving reports. Though aided by lighting and cinematography, the actor needed to convey a great deal of emotion solely through his voice and body language, as no part of his eyes, mouth or face are visible behind V's façade. "James often gave me notes about my dialogue or my performance as I would do it if I weren't wearing a mask. That was great, because central to making the mask work was making the character behind the mask work."
Finding V's voice was crucial to the process. "I knew I didn't have to worry about my voice being muffled by the mask when we were filming, because we would re-record my dialogue in post-production," says the actor. "But it's still important to find the character within the voice and give the right performance on the day."