"We took the script on quite a journey. Heidi Thomas produced drafts which were entirely focussed on each character:  there was a Mortmain draft, a Neil draft, a Simon draft and so forth. We had a comedy draft and a drama draft. Each time Heidi changed perhaps just 5% of the script to give it a different slant. And the outcome is that the characters and the storylines are incredibly well-developed and well-rounded. The final script is a faithful but by no means slavish adaptation of Dodie Smith's novel"

Producer David Parfitt

Producer David Parfitt became involved in I Capture the Castle some four years ago when Heidi Thomas' script was in development with BBC Films and director Mike Newell. Once he heard about the project he read the book, which he found incredibly moving.  "For me it was like reading Bridget Jones' Diary which is not a book men are naturally attracted to," he says.  I Capture The Castle is about growing up and first love, which has resonances for all of us. It's beautifully written and very emotionally involving and I wanted to translate that to the screen."

Heidi Thomas, who was extremely taken by the novel, had conducted meticulous research on author Dodie Smith, reading her letters, biographies and original manuscripts, and it was Heidi who first suggested that David Parfitt approach director Tim Fywell to helm the project. Thomas and Fywell had worked together on television drama Madame Bovary.

Fywell was immediately drawn to the project.  "I felt in one sense here was a very particular and sometimes humorous story about an eccentric family living in a castle in the 1930s, but that there were also a number of relevant, primal themes running through it, such as falling in love for the first time, losing your mother and coping with a difficult relationship with your father," says Fywell. "Adolescence is an incredibly vivid time in a person's life and to me this story captured those feelings of joy, pain, uncertainty and humour. But most of all I was drawn to the intelligent wit and ironic humour which runs through the story."

Fywell and Thomas embarked on a close working relationship to fine-tune the screenplay. With each draft, Fywell would spend days at Thomas's house where she would write in one room and he would read and make notes in the next.

"We took the script on quite a journey," says David Parfitt. "Heidi produced drafts which were entirely focussed on each character:  there was a Mortmain draft, a Neil draft, a Simon draft and so forth. We had a comedy draft and a drama draft. Each time Heidi changed perhaps just 5% of the script to give it a different slant. And the outcome is that the characters and the storylines are incredibly well-developed and well-rounded. The final script is a faithful but by no means slavish adaptation of Dodie Smith's novel."

finding cassandra
The biggest challenge for the filmmakers was to find Cassandra. They needed a young actress who had the confidence and ability to carry the film, but who had the innocence and naiveté to play a seventeen-year-old girl in the 1930s. What's more, Cassandra's character development throughout the story is such that she must be fresh and innocent at the outset and yet wise and mature as her story ends. She is ironic and witty with a natural less obvious beauty. The audition process was extensive, but as soon as Fywell met Romola Garai, he knew he had found his Cassandra.

"I must have been late that day because when I walked into the room Romola was already seated," the director says. "As I saw her I felt that slight thrill you experience when you know you have hit on something. Romola had a unique ability to play a character sitting on both sides of the knife's edge between child and womanhood."

Garai, who had appeared in several TV series, was thrilled to be offered the leading role. Not only was it an opportunity to play the lead in a feature film alongside some of the UK's most respected actors, but she had long been a fan of the original novel, so playing Cassandra was something of a childhood dream come true.

"I read the book when I was thirteen years old," the actress says.  "It's a seminal coming of age book which I read in my formative years and, like any book which you read at that impressionable age, you admire and relate to the lead character. But it's quite a pressure having to actually be her!

"Heidi's characterisation of Cassandra is flawless," she continues. "She's a very real, earthy, honest character, unlike many other great literary heroines who tend to be glassy or aloof. The great thing about Cassandra is that through her journal she has a medium to communicate her innermost thoughts to the audience in an honest way."

In July 2001 Tim and David travelled to the US to cast the two American brothers. Throughout the film age is very important, so they went out to America with a short list of suitable actors in their late twenties. Two actors on that list went on to win the roles: star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Marc Blucas, was cast as outgoing, gregarious Neil, and Henry Thomas, whom David Parfitt knew from their work together on Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, was chosen for the more reserved Simon.

"I read the script and found it a strangely uplifting story," Thomas says. "Simon is the eldest son, a privileged guy who sees this opportunity for great adventure and romance in coming to England to claim his birthright. More than anything else Simon, like many other characters in the movie, is a catalyst for change in Cassandra's life. The best thing about this project for me has been the cast - working with Bill and Tara and Sinead has been a lot of fun for me. I like to work with international casts. You learn a lot as an actor. It's fun for me to be in the same room as those guys. And the same can be said for Rose and Marc and Romola. The other day Marc and I were standing around in a castle in Wales at three in the morning, wearing 1930s tuxedos, looking at the stars and wondering what was for lunch - it's really surreal for a guy from Texas!"

The real surprise of the trip was casting Australian actress Rose Byrne as Rose.

"We found Rose completely by accident," Parfitt explains. "She is an Australian actress who plays a Brit in our film and who just happened to be passing through LA at the right time. She had just got off a plane and the poor thing was shoved in front of me and Tim, having only just hurriedly read the script."

"She was just fantastic," says Tim, "and I had no doubt of her ability to carry off the English accent."

For her part Rose Byrne generously attributes much of the film's success to co-star Romola Garai. "I really don't think the film would work so well if someone else was playing Cassandra," she says. "Romola is such a genuine, generous actress. Playing opposite her, it was so easy to create the dynamic between the two sisters, and that dynamic is integral both to the book and the film."

The character of Mortmain, their father, is played by veteran British actor Bill Nighy.  Mortmain, a volatile and eccentric once-great writer has a very difficult and complex relationship with Cassandra. "Casting Bill Nighy as Mortmain was an idea we had very early on," Fywell says. "I had a very strong feeling that he was right for Mortmain. He had to have a seedy quality, great humanity, warmth, sexuality and humour. He's quite a difficult, distant writer and if the actor were too cold, you would feel no empathy with the character. But we battled to get Bill and succeeded."

Romola Garai played some of her toughest and most demanding scenes opposite Nighy and says of him: "He's just the most phenomenal actor. I went to see Blue Orange [Joe Penhall's acclaimed play at the Royal National Theatre] with my mum and I said to her then 'Can you imagine ever getting to work with him; he's just amazing'. We have intensely emotional scenes where we are battling to break down communication barriers and the support Bill has given me before, during and after these scenes has been tremendous. Bill is such a physical actor that every word Cassandra uttered in anger, Mortmain would react to as if she had struck a physical blow. That was very hard for me."

Tara FitzGerald was cast as Mortmain's second wife, step-mother to his three children. A former artists' model and much younger than her husband Mortmain, Topaz is a free-spirited, bohemian and unconventional character. "Tara I had worked together before on The Woman in White, so we already had a great working relationship," Fywell says. "She was simply very right for the part, even down to her low, husky voice, as described in Dodie Smith's book. The most important thing in casting Topaz was not to stray too far from the truth - she's such an eccentric character that it would have been easy to make her unreal. With Tara, she keeps the character very grounded and psychologically real."

"Topaz is an ex-artists' muse about to turn thirty who is going through something of a crisis," Tara Fitzgerald says. "She lives to inspire, and Mortmain's writer's block is not lifting, so she feels a failure. She lives in this ramshackle castle with her reclusive husband and his children who are approaching her own age. She's the in-betweener really. Topaz is a wonderfully complicated and hypocritical character.

"I had never read the book before, but as soon as I started talking to Tim about the movie, I saw it everywhere!" the actress continues. "I actually bought it in a small bookshop in Cape Cod. I was browsing and there it was as their 'must read' recommendation. I think the film, like the book, will be enjoyed by anyone in their early teens and upwards. It's ostensibly a teen novel, but it's so grown up and darkly funny, I really do think it will be enjoyed by everyone."

Sinead Cusack, as Mrs Cotton, was the last cast member to come on board the production. Tim and David had initially expected to cast an American actress in the role of Simon and Neil's mother, but following the devastating attacks of September 11th 2001, American actors were reluctant to travel abroad, so the filmmakers looked closer to home. "We were very lucky to get Sinead," Parfitt says. "She's wonderful and has, of course, played American roles before."

making the film
For their behind-the-scenes collaborators, Parfitt and Fywell selected talent with whom they had previously worked. Oscar nominated hair and make-up designer Lisa Westcott worked with David Parfitt on Shakespeare in Love and The Madness of King George, costume designer Charlotte Walter had worked with Fywell several times, and director of photography Richard Greatrex had worked with both during his long and very successful career.

Shooting began in September 2001. The film was funded by South African based sales and production outfit Distant Horizon, BBC Films, The Isle of Man Film Commission and Baker Street / Take 3 Partnerships.

Funding from the Isle of Man requires a certain percentage of the film to be shot on the island. The story is actually set in the countryside of Suffolk, but Fywell found that the Isle of Man offered locations perfectly suited to the movie. "A lot of the story is rural and it is, of course, a period piece," he says. "So we found the unspoilt countryside on the Isle of Man was ideal. There is also a tower, surrounded by sea, which we used as Mortmain's reclusive spot for writing. The studio was transformed to make the interior castle locations."

The family home location was provided by Manorbier Castle near Tenby, Wales. "We looked at five or six castles and chose Manorbier for a number of reasons:  it had to be slightly run down, it had to have a moat and it had to be in a rural setting," David Parfitt explains. "One of the first problems we encountered  was how to line and fill the moat with water. The only water supply at the castle was a tap, and it would have taken years to fill this moat with buckets. So we ended up hiring a water tanker in London (there weren't any available locally) and bringing our own water from London! "

Once the moat was full, Romola had to swim in it.

"One of the things I like about the film is that I have hugely varied scenes" she says. "But I have to say that swimming in the moat was purely a test of physical endurance. And sunbathing on the roof of the castle when the wind was whipping across was quite similar!"

But for David Parfitt and the rest of the team, the hardships endured were worth it:  "Despite cold and rain, six-day weeks and long working days, this was a very happy and productive shoot. There were no fights or tantrums, the cast and crew got on very well together and they all responded well to Tim. It was very smooth and this is not often the case!"

Tim Fywell agrees: "I'm thrilled with the movie. It has been a great experience, I have worked with some very talented people, and I think the movie is powerful, emotional, funny, compelling - everything I had hoped for."

director tim fywell

I Capture The Castle is the feature film debut from award-winning director Tim Fywell.  Fywell's television credits notably include:  Ruth Rendell's A Fatal Inversion starring Douglas Hodge and Jeremy Northam, Gallowglass and Dark Adapted Eye starring Helena Bonham Carter; Norma Jean and Marilyn starring Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino; acclaimed BBC drama The Ice House starring Daniel Craig and Corin Redgrave; Woman In White for which Fywell received the BAFTA award for Best Drama Serial; Bad Blood with Emilia Fox and Steven Mackintosh; Channel 4's series North Square for which Fywell received a Press and Broadcasting Guild Award for Best Serial/Series; and most recently Madame Bovary. Fywell's theatre credits include:  Skirmishes at the Hampstead Theatre; Hanif Kureshi's The Mother Country; Hitting Town at the Bush Theatre; No Hand Signals, which he also wrote, at the National Theatre; I Made It Ma - Top of the World, which he also devised, at the Royal Court; and Spring Awakening at the Royal Court.

writer heidi thomas
Heidi Thomas' career began when she won a special award in the National Youth Theatre's New Play competition in 1984 for All Flesh Is Grass which subsequently ran at the Liverpool Playhouse.  She then wrote Shamrocks And Crocodiles also for the Liverpool Playhouse, as a result of which she won a Thames Television Bursary which gained her an attachment to the Playhouse as Resident Writer.  Heidi's last stage play Singing Blood was presented at the Royal Court starring Prunella Scales and Anton Rodgers. Heidi's television credits include Our Lady Blue, Soldier Soldier, Frank Stubbs Promotes and Doctor Findlay. Heidi first worked with Tim Fywell when she adapted Flaubert's Madame Bovary for the TV version he directed in 2000. I CAPTURE THE CASTLE is Thomas' first feature film screenplay.  She is currently working on a film entitled Glass Moon for the BBC and Disraeli in Love for Ecosse Films