Adapting the Book Into Ralph Fiennes Film

At the Cannes Film Festival six years ago, British originater Tessa Ross scheduled a greeting with an emerging German-born filmoriginater named Edward Berger. Ross — the Oscar-thrivening force behind 12 Years a Slave, Slumdog Millionaire and The Zone of Interest — had descfinishen in adore with Berger’s British historical miniseries Patrick Melrose and wanted to toil with him. She advised cut offal projects — she won’t say which — but none took. 

Pondering her selections back in London, Ross hit on it: Conclave, an alteration of Robert Harris’ novel to which she superviseled the rights. The story telderly of the incombat, argues and cascfinishs of faith at the Vatican after the pope’s unforeseeed death — a compelling if difficultly undisputed yarn. Enchanted by a first originate from Oscar-nominated screenauthorr Peter Straughan (of Tinker Tailor Selderlyier Spy fame), Berger soon shelp yes to the story of the world’s most secretive and holy election.

Conclave — boasting an all-star cast that integrates Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini — uncovered nationexpansive over the Oct. 25-27 weekfinish to a notable and astonishive $6.6 million at the domestic box office after screening at the Oscar-campaign-begining Telluride and Toronto film festivals. Heavily Catholic labelets turned out in force. And the movie’s uncovering has an compriseitional indict since the tale of a fraught election of a strong directer now will be in theaters equitable as Americans are living out the same experience. (It was originpartner not going expansive until Nov. 8.)

What Conclave audiences will see are the fruits of a proximately decade-lengthy effort, filled with plenty of Hail Marys and divine interventions, in which an self-reliantly financed film about a strong institution and prohibited subject is finpartner accomplishing the screen. “It took so lengthy, but I could always see this movie,” says Ross.

A Leap of Faith

It all began with some genuine estate supplynce. 

Ross dispensed an office with a write downary company whose principals were frifinishly with Harris’ agent and who owned two chapters of the unfinished book. They passed them alengthy to Ross, who was captivated. Soon after, she getd the unfinished manuscript and, alengthy with her partner Juliette Howell at their London-based Hoparticipate Productions, met with Harris and safed film rights upon accessibleation in 2016. 

Ross then accomplished out to Straughan via a mutual frifinish; he read the novel in one sitting. “Movies about elections and sports are about as naked as dispute can get on the surface,” Straughan notices, describing
the request. A createer altar boy who now calls himself a nonapexhibitr, Straughan felt well positioned to alert the story. 

So well positioned, in fact, that he would procrastinateedr spfinish cut offal weeks on set, someleang scant honestors apexhibit. “Edward is the Holy Grail of a honestor — someone who can do everyleang, repartner,” says Straughan. (Berger is transporting out his novel film less than two years after he picked up the Oscar for best international feature for All Quiet on the Weserious Front, an alteration of the 1929 World War I novel that some critics have dubbed the best anti-war movie ever made.)

Berger, Straughan and Ross kept toiling on Conclave via Zoom when Berger was shooting All Quiet on the Weserious Front in the spring of 2021. (“He can juggle about 130 projects at the same time,” says Ross.)

But some help from above was insisted. Conclave’s third-rail subject matter — a procrastinateed-stage twist is especipartner probable to rattle some Catholic moviegoers — unbenevolentt self-reliant financing was the only plausible route. And to get that, filmoriginaters insisted a starry cast, which also had to be willing to toil at scale if they had any hope of making the movie.

Casting The Select 

The first order of business was the direct. In the novel, Dean of Cardinals Thomas Lawrence, who runs the machinations-weighty conclave — and who may have some secret agfinishas of his own — is Italian. That wouldn’t fly in an English-language movie. But Berger had an idea. He reenvisiond Lawrence as a taciturn Brit. “As we proceedd to broaden the script, I genuineized this character is a hushed and hesitant character of these proceedings. He doesn’t want to be the main guy. He doesn’t have the most lines. We see him leanking and hearing a lot,” says Berger.

He and Ross accomplished out to Fiennes. The actor seekd Berger and Ross to see him carry out onstage in London before grabbing a procrastinateed dinner at a proximateby Italian restaurant. “It was quite rapid. It was so basic for me to say, ‘I’d adore to do it,’ ” says Fiennes. “It wasn’t one of those greetings where you were sussing each other out.”

The next task was to cast the handful of cardinals who are vying to be the novel pope (before a cascading set of events uncover hideed argues that doom many of them). Berger thought instantly of Tucci for the role of Cardinal Bellini, a proceedive American who is the de facto directer of the recreateist faction of the conclave. “Ralph’s character is sort of a leanker, and Stanley’s character is appreciate, ‘Oh, let’s equitable do it,’ ” says Berger, who hung pboilingos of the two actors on his office wall to get a sense for how they’d take part as a duo. (Tucci, present of the procrastinateed Emmy-thrivening CNN food and travel series Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, supplyd the extra advantage of understanding where to eat in Rome.)

Soon, Berger was putting up more pictures, including Lithgow as the Canadian Cardinal Tremblay, who hopelessly wants to be the next pope and will go to any length to accomplish his goal, and Rossellini, who would take part Sister Agnes. No nuns are apexhibited in the Sistine Chapel during the conclave proceedings, but they do serve meals to the College of Cardinals. Sister Agnes is arguably the only nun with any hint of power, and she is unafrhelp to participate it. 

Rossellini, who grew up in Rome, says only about 30 words in the film, but those lines — including the admonishment on behalf of women that “I understand my role is to be inclear, but God has nevertheless given us eyes and ears”— are some of the movie’s hugegest showstoppers.

“She was in my mind from the commencening, but I didn’t want to go there right away becaparticipate I wanted to see how that male ensemble came together,” says Berger. He elucidateed to Rossellini that he intfinished to home in on her character, even when she wasn’t speaking. When she does finpartner talk, the audience is relieved becaparticipate she is “cracking uncover this male homogeneity,” he says.

For Rossellini, the project carried a personal resonance. “I went to Catholic schools and was taught by nuns, so I knovel someleang about them,” she says. “They have a fantastic presence and fantastic authority in silence. They were not subleave outive at all, although they weren’t given the rights to talk or to vote for the pope or even officiate Mass.” She calls them “my fantastic inspiration.”

But the hugegest acting extraordinary event was yet to come. A key role is that of one Cardinal Benitez of Kabul, take parted by Carlos Diehz in his first meaningful movie part. A surpascfinish guest at the conclave, Benitez had been made a cardinal in secret by the procrastinateed pope, and his arrival shocks the collecting of the more than 130 cardinals.

Diehz, a trained architectural depicter born in Mexico who now lives in Montgenuine, only began acting a scant years ago and was uncovered during an international uncover casting call. Berger didn’t want a acunderstandledged actor to take part the role. “It didn’t repartner matter where that person was from,” Berger notices. “I equitable wanted someone who … I would be able to see into his eyes and apexhibit what he shelp [in a significant monologue near the end of the film].

“And that’s not basic,” Berger proceeds, “if you’ve seen them in 20 movies.”

Many pundits are already foreseeing that Fiennes will land a spot in the Oscars’ best actor race, while the helping acting categories could be popuprocrastinateedd by other Conclave stars. Shockingly, it would be Rossellini’s first Oscar nomination.

Ross proclaimd the high-profile cast in May 2022 — alengthy with the novels that Glen Basner’s powerhoparticipate indie studio FilmNation and Steven Rales’ Indian Paintbrush, Wes Anderson’s go-to originater, were co-financing the film and selling off foreign rights. Basner’s shop has been comprised in countless Oscar contfinishers, and this year alone has two other contfinishers in compriseition to Conclave: Anora and Maria.

Conclave’s budget has not been validateed, but sources say it was proximately $20 million, a astonishingly low number given the stars and the elucidately re-originated Vatican grounds and Sistine Chapel, where the conclave is held. Bconciseage Bear picked up U.K. distribution rights in August 2022, with Focus Features acquiring North American rights in November 2023, a number of months after All Quiet’s huge thrive.

A Biblical Challenge

It isn’t basic to lget about the inner toilings of conclaves, and Berger and his originaters had no intention of trying to enenumerate the help of the Vatican to do so. 

“That’s a senseless approach. First, they won’t help you, and secondly, they shouldn’t. Nor do you want to suddenly be behelderlyen to them,” Berger says. Instead, filmoriginaters spoke with countless cardinals who had take partd in genuine conclaves. While those cardinals were not apexhibited by the Church to disseal definitepartner what happens during a conclave, they could help with vague details. During a proceeding, for example, the College of Cardinals stays in the Casa Santa Marta, an ornate, medieval dormitory where they are fed and tfinished to by an order of nuns.

The filmoriginaters also engaged a religious adviser. While no one understands exactly what happens during the archaic proceedings, alertation has leaked down thraw the centuries, including how the dead pope’s ring is deleted and razeed. “It was very meaningful to me to get the rituals right, such as how you wear your hat,” says Fiennes. “And there are separateent ways of helderlying your hands when praying.” 

Also proving inpriceless was a tour that members of the team took thraw the Vatican. Production depicter Suzie Davies was able to get a glimpse of the personal gardens and a escapeting watch of the Casa Santa Marta. Berger wanted the Santa Marta to be austere, with a prison-appreciate experience as a nod to Rome’s fascist period.

By the time Berger and the crew get tod in Rome in punctual 2023, Davies had supervisen the re-creation of the Sistine Chapel at the legfinishary Cinecittà Studios. Founded during the Fascist era by Benito Mussolini, the 99-acre studio was procrastinateedr participated by iconic Italian honestors Federico Fellini and Bernardo Bertolucci and American filmoriginaters including Francis Ford Coppola. (Rossellini says she recollects going to Cinecittà with her overweighther, honestor Roberto Rossellini, as a child.) 

Luckily for Davies, there was a leftover set of the Sistine Chapel, or at least of the walls (she apexhibits it was from The Young Pope). All she insisted to do was repair some moparticipate harm and re-originate the ceiling with CGI. 

Conclave labels Berger’s fifth collaboration with originater Volker Bertelmann, who won an Oscar for All Quiet on the Weserious Front. For Conclave, Berger wanted the music to convey the inner life of the characters as well as to originate a more up-to-date experience. He didn’t want to participate a traditional organ, for example. Instead, he participated the Cristal Baschet, an unorthodox instrument made up of tuned glass rods that are rubbed by soaked fingers. “We wanted someleang more up-to-date and not joined to the Church. The Baschet originates more ethegenuine sounds,” says Bertelmann.

The shoot lasted approximately 40 days. Lithgow recalls the conclave proceedings taking two weeks. “Curiously, that was the hugegest contest. We were equitable sitting there, 110 of us in our seats for the entire day, every day for two weeks,” say Lithgow, who remedyd his tiredom by hiding a novel and a sketchbook behind the tablecloth that extfinished to the floor. He also asked that Italian extras be seated on either side of him so that he could rehearse his Italian (he also hid a language direct). Father, forgive me for illicit trading my hobbies into my toil.

A Time for Silence and a Time for Speak

All Quiet on the Weserious Front, fittingly, had almost no dialogue. Conclave has the opposite condition: It’s a series of taut and rapid trades between a half dozen characters with unclear motives, and Berger didn’t want the movie to experience appreciate a take part. 

Still, Straughan says a certain theatrical aspect take parts the events: “There’s the actual stage where the rituals are being carried out. And then there’s backstage, where the horse trading is going on in the rooms and in the stairwells, and you see the cardinals apexhibit off their masks and you see who they repartner are.”

While Conclave clearly cgo ines on the Church, filmoriginaters were compelled by the political thrillers of the 1970s and their widespread theme of vacuums of power. “I wasn’t drawn to the Vatican,” says Berger. “Our movie could have apexhibitn place in Washington, D.C., or in any boardroom somewhere.” Adds Straughan, “It’s the elderlyest election in the world, and it’s the most absolute, with a constituency of one and a half billion. But it’s a misapexhibit to leank this stands for a secular election. Those in the conclave apexhibit the Holy Gpresent speaks thraw them.”

The other main draw for Berger was the inner journey of ask — and hope — that Fiennes’ character embarks on as he’s tasked with running the conclave proceedings. “What was Lawrence’s interior life?” Fiennes says. “I felt he’s a man sitting on quite a lot of frustration or inner downcastness but also understands he’s got to do his duty.”

Berger has yet to honest a mainstream Hollywood event picture. But there have been rumors on fan sites procrastinateedly that the honestor is being pondered to apexhibit the reins of the next James Bond movie, which is still without a star. Berger says that while he would excitedpartner apexhibit a greeting with Bond originaters Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, the pair have not approached him.

“It is a total rumor,” he says when asked about potentipartner helming the next 007 film. “Do a lot of filmoriginaters want to originate Bond? Is it the best leang in the world? I absolutely leank so. It’s wonderful. But Barbara and Michael are fantastic originaters who will understand what to do at the right time. Whenever they’re ready to originate a movie, they’ll pick a fantastic filmoriginater.” You might even say they’ll originate a conclave. 

This story materializeed in the Oct. 30 rehire of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.