BFI Presents: Richard III 15

It is the 1930s, and a long and bloody civil war has divided the nation as two powerful families battle for the crown. The end of the war comes suddenly when the reigning King and his heir are killed by the Commander-in-Chief of the York faction, Richard of Gloucester. Richard's elder brother, Edward, takes the throne, establishing a shaky peace over the nation. But Richard, shunning the dreary calm of peacetime, turns his attention to a new, private war within the House of York. Brother to a sickly King and Lord Protector to a vulnerable young heir, he sets in motion a murderous plot to divide his family, eliminate his rivals and usurp the throne.

Having produced and starred in the Royal National Theatre's world tour of Richard III from 1990 - 1992, Ian McKellen began work on his first screenplay with the aim of creating a unique film adaptation that could be accessible to as wide an audience as possible. Combining his Shakespearean background with Richard Loncraine's visual dynamism and recruiting an ensemble of British and American acting talent, McKellen produced a striking interpretation of Richard III - transferring the action to an imagined war-wracked Europe of the 1930s and transforming Shakespeare's most notorious villain into a fascistic despot.