Lambert, Lambert, you.... Independent Witcher Movie is Coming
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There's also one more issue, which you might want to learn more about. The protagonist of Alzur's Legacy isn't Geralt, but rather his pal, Lambert. The director stated that Geralt as the main character was never really considered – mainly because all the loose ends of his story were neatly tied in the books and video games. Geralt has been seen so many times in every possible environment that there was the risk of saturation.
The quality of costumes always strikes me – amazing. (photo credit: Cezary Pomykalo)
Jakub Nurzynski opted for Lambert from the onset, and has good reasons for it – he compared the character to Marvel superheroes, who are oftentimes coarse and mean at first, but eventually become amiable and helpful figures. His relationship to Triss Merigold is also central for his character arch, and it could be summed up as "teasing is a sign of affection." That's how it was in the books, and the games, too. The writers from CD Projekt also suggested that Merigold and Lambert had at least one date.
The movie will, of course, feature many characters already known to us from the books – apart from Lambert, Triss, and Dandelion, there will also be Eskel and Vesemir, but that's no surprise considering that one of the threads of the story will be about the school of the Wolf. Beyond that, the move will introduce a whole bunch of original characters, including the sorceress Ornella – a young apprentice from Aretuza, who runs away from the school of magic to fulfill her destiny, along with her servant Boguch, who will also play a significant role in this story. Then, there's the villain, a certain Agaius, who really messed with the witchers, but we won't tell you how exactly.
Despite shooting only in vicinity of Warsaw, the crew has found some really interesting locations. (photo credit: Cezary Pomykalo)
The Witchers – brought to you by the Internet
You might have heard about Alzur's Legacy on the occasion of the crowdfunding campaigns, which made it possible to kick start the entire project. One campaign on a Polish crowdfunding website yielded around $14,000 dollars, and then, there was the Indiegogo campaign that generated another $8,370, and a facebook campaign. The entire amount collected was spent on strictly production-related costs, such as renting locations, creating set design, traveling, and feeding the crew on-site.
Ornella could surprise you. (photo credit: Cezary Pomykalo)
But let's emphasize again: none of the people working on the film got a penny for their work. This was also determined by legal matters – a fan project doesn't need obtaining copyrights as long as nobody's making a buck on the side. This will allow the creators to avoid the hypothetical, unpleasant situation, where a certain person, whose initials are, say A.S., would ask them the uncomfortable question of "Where's my money?"
It seemed that crowdfunding success would allow to shoot in more appealing locations. The director dreamed of shooting the movie abroad. He thought of Lithuanian forests and Slovak castles, then, a little more locally, about Silesian fortifications, but getting the entire team across the country just proved too expensive. The reality verified these intentions, and eventually, the entire thing had to be shot in Masovia, that's in central Poland, roughly the region of the Polish capital, Warsaw.
Frankly, this allowed me to rediscover Masovia. I've spent my entire life here, just like the production manager and the camera operator, but we never realized how many great spots were here. There's a Viking city, an open-air ethnic museum, a castle, ruins of a palace. Amazingly, most of these locations were within an hour, maybe an hour-and-a-half drive from Warsaw.
Jakub Nurzynski
All sorts of fortresses, castles, and ruins around Warsaw were used. Funnily enough, the crew of Alzur's Legacy also intended to shoot in the Ogrodzieniec castle a week before the infamous "rennovation." The people closely following news related to the Netflix production, are probably aware that the “renovation” was prompted by the visit of Lauren Hissrich' and her crew.
A forest... of crosses
It was the locations and the budget compromises that proved to be the biggest challenge for the whole team. Every new place was invaluable. Having managed to rent out a location, the team did everything they could to use the potential to the absolute fullest.
A good example would be the quarters of Ornella. The scenes were supposed to be set in a fortress near Warsaw, but the director wasn't pleased with how it looked through the camera. It needed some additional constructions. The set designer recalls that this was one of the least gracious moments in the production – unloading two trucks full of wooden boards to try and round the place off a bit. On the other hand, finding a new location could have taken much longer.
I thin you're not welcome here, Lambert (photo credit: Cezary Pomykalo)
Don't forget about the budget when comparing Alzur's Legacy to the original Polish film. Many people look down upon that production, but not many are aware that the budget was a whopping (for the Polish standards) 19 million PLN (about 6 million USD).
In reality, what we've been able to achieve is making a feature-length fantasy movie for thirty thousand bucks.
Jakub Nurzynski
You probably don't feel like it, so we'll do the maths for you: the budget of Alzur's Legacy equals about... 0.5% of the 2001 Witcher movie. Comparing it to the sort of funding behind The Wild Hunt or The Witcher from Netflix would be beating a dead horse.
There's more things to life than money, though, such as the good will of common people, whom the crew met time and time again. It happened more than once that various locations were rented for peanuts, simply in exchange for a shout out in the credits. Another time, there was a guy specializing in historical reconstructions, who – upon hearing what the project was about – literally allowed the crew to a hangar full of props that they could use at will. It seems that "The Witcher" is not only a fine export good, but also a key to mane hearts, encouraging a lot of people to help, especially in case of a project prepared by fans, for the fans.
