Jerzy Skolimowski as King Jan III Sobieski: photo - Monolith Films
Renzo Martinelli's lavish production about the 1683 Relief of Vienna, in which Poland helped repulse the Ottoman army from the Habsburg capital, goes on Polish release next Friday, but had it not been for a stroke of luck, Skolimowski would have had no part in the production.
According to the Essential Killing director, the proposal came during Krakow's Off Plus Camera Festival in 2011.
While presenting the jury prize for best international film, one of the Italian producers of the Vienna epic happened to be in the audience, and quickly fell under Skolimowski's spell.
“If Skolimowski was an actor too, he'd be the dream casting for the role of Sobieski,” the producer told a journalist sitting next to him.
The journalist immediately pointed out that Skolimowski had taken roles in films by Tim Burton, David Cronenburg and Volker Schlondorrff.
The producer rushed over to see the Pole after the ceremony, and made him a proposition he couldn't refuse.
“I wavered for a few days, but ultimately decided that the role of the Polish king would be a great challenge for me,” he told current affairs weekly Uwazam Rze.
Skolimowski revealed that while on set, his greatest problem was not so much in acting, but in trying to ride a horse, something which the 74-year-old had never attempted before.
However, he pulled through, noting that a stuntman was only used in the scenes when the king is seen galloping.
Some 10,000 extras were employed by Italian film-maker Renzo Martinelli in the movie.
F. Murray Abraham, famed for playing Mozart's nemesis Salieri in Milos Foreman's Amadeus, plays the central role of Marco d'Aviano, a Capuchin friar who was an advisor at the court of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I in Vienna.
Skolimowski was joined by other noted Polish actors including Piotr Adamczyk, Alicja Bachleda-Curus and Daniel Olbrychski.
Although the English title is September Eleven 1683, the film is being released in Poland as Bitwa pod Wiedniem (The Battle of Vienna).
Meanwhile, Skolimowski has confirmed that he is writing a script about the famed Polish 303 Air squadron that fought in the Battle of Britain as part of the UK's Royal Air Force (RAF). (nh)