Robert Lantos wanted to avoid a Hollywood take on European history and insisted that characters in his period epic Rise of the Raven spoke in their native tongues and that talent was sourced from the countries in question.

“I’ve always shot in English, but this is a story that is so deeply rooted in a specific moment in time, specific geographic places, I didn’t want to have everybody speak some kind of a mid-Atlantic English,” the veteran film and TV producer told Deadline.

That also meant the casting pool was smaller and the team had to work harder to find its on-screen talent...