The upcoming short film, King of the Iron Will, has wrapped filming at Dundas Castle just outside South Queensferry.
Directed by Scott Vickers (Matriarch), the medieval drama stars Charlie Creed-Miles (Peaky Blinders, The Fifth Element) as King Draven, who rules his kingdom from his remote castle stronghold (outdoor photography took place last July, with Dunnottar Castle doubling for Draven’s ancestral seat). Creator/producer Liam James Collins co-stars as King Baron, the titular Iron Will, who arrives at the castle seeking revenge for Draven’s misdeeds. His pursuit of justice, however, may spell his undoing.
“I had this one image of a king sitting on a throne and his kingdom was crumbling and he was all on his own’ says Collins. ‘What happens when you achieve success through spite?’ he continues, ‘I’m always very, very interested in that because I think, on some level, most of us have had an experience where you’ve not been believed in. Someone hasn’t believed in you or they’ve said you’re not going to amount to anything. There’s something that has planted a seed where you think ‘D’you know what? I’m gonna show you. I’m gonna do something significant. I’m gonna achieve success. I’m gonna prove you wrong’.
“But then the question is what happens after that?’ asks Collins, ‘What fills that void? Do you find fulfilment? Do you find happiness or do you end up taking the place of the person who showed you that level of spite? I think most people can relate to that on some level and it’s a strong driver, but in many respects, it’s a dangerous one as well. It can help you proceed and succeed but it can also poison you. I thought it would be quite interesting to tell that story on a grand, medieval setting.”
The film has been billed as a Shakespearean story set against that medieval backdrop, with Draven and Baron sparring with one another in an intense verbal battle of wits written in the dialect of the time to better seat the audience in the characters’ world, one of blood and vengeance. ‘The moment I brought the script to Scott, he was an immediate collaborator – all in it was Scott’s idea to write it in Shakespearean language which I thought was just the perfect icing on the cake for the project.
Vickers said: “My initial pass on dialogue was strict pentameter but Shakespeare himself did deviate from pentameter in a lot of the later plays, he actually partly ditched it. So we wanted to have it in Shakespearean language, but not be so tight to it that maybe people wouldn’t grasp it as much. There’s flexibility there.”
Charlie Creed-Miles plays King Draven the Soulless, but finding the right man for the role was crucial.Collins said: “We knew that the bulk of the film was this conversation between these two men, so the actor really had to be someone that we loved and respected and we were going to be really excited about.
“It really landed with Charlie emotionally, which was a blessing. We were just so excited!”
Creed-Miles added: “What was lovely about this whole process is that I think we got each other immediately. I knew what that you knew what you were doing, Scott, and that just puts your mind at rest. Working with an actor like Liam, we’re very similar. We’re very passionate about what we do and we give it all. And also, Scott’s from an actor and he’s from an acting background so we all kind of understand each other. What we got through in a fourteen-hour day is unreal. To use a sort of common parlance, we shot the f**k out of it.
“The coverage is incredible.. What it gives you is a sort of freedom and we got a lovely shot from the top of the room – there’s a sort of mezzanine high up in the hall – and that wasn’t even on the shot list. We were getting extra stuff, that’s how hard we went at it. We just cracked on.”
Collins said: “The experience that Charlie brought as well really, really helped with that. There’s this combination of Charlie also bringing some really great ideas.”
“He came with so much stuff!” added Vickers. “When you go for a star, you don’t know if they’re going to care about it. There’s always a risk. They’ve done Hollywood movies!’
Collins said that Charlie “really cared. He continued: “And then you combine that with also the understanding of We are shooting this in a day. We can’t mess about.”
Charlie agreed, saying: “That momentum when you build up a head of steam is important – especially for actors. We’re getting into emotional states to deliver something and you want to keep going while you’re in that state. You can’t maintain it indefinitely. That’s impossible.”
Speaking about choosing Scotland as the backdrop for his drama, Collins said: “It’s not a Scottish story. In fact, even though it’s quite obviously set in a medieval time, it’s an undefined time as well. It can almost be its own world in which we’ve created here we’re kings of our own kingdoms.”
Charlie believes it had a “sort of tribal element. there were clans who fought over land. It was tribalistic.”
Colins is emphatic: “And in that world, you can become a king.”
Dundas has served as the interior for King Draven’s castle, specifically its Keep, built by James Dundas in 1416, the perfect location for the two kings’ confrontation in the throne room.
Collins said: “Really, in terms of ‘Why Scotland?” just great castles! Dundas – this place has been unbelievable.”
Charlie loved the fire they got going in one of the castle’s hearths: “We had this beautiful fire roaring all day. Open fires, there’s something so lovely about them. Something cosy and homely about them and while I was building this fire I was thinking my god, people have been setting fires in this fireplace for over six hundred years. These are not the first logs to get cremated in this fireplace. Just amazing.
“It’s got this historical context, you can feel it when you’re on set, but also just walking around here’ says Collins, ‘You could feel the energy coming out of the ground this is a real place that has some serious history. Louise, who runs the castle has been phenomenal and she could just see the vision. She was really excited about the idea of this film taking place here. It was worth every penny this place. You get what you pay for.”
With the two-day shoot in the can, Collins and Vickers now have the edit ahead of them, with a view to premiering the film on this year’s festival circuit, with a possibility of seeing it at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in August. Collins would love that. He said: “I think that’d be wonderful. We’ll approach all major film festivals – and we’ll see what happens.”
