 The part of Bishop Edvard Vergérus was written by  Ingmar Bergman (qv) with Max von Sydow (I) (qv) in mind. When  the screenplay was completed, von Sydow was contacted about playing  the role, which would have been his first in a Bergman film since  _Beröringen (1971)_ (qv). Von Sydow was willing and, in fact, very  excited about playing the role. However, Bergman was not aware of  this, since von Sydow was in Los Angeles at the time, and could only  be reached through his agent who, acting in what he perceived as von  Sydows interest, told Bergman and his producers that von Sydow  would only play the role if he could have a percentage of the films  profits, in addition to his salary. The producers, already stretched  to their financial limits, of course balked, and told the agent  that, sadly, there could be no such compromise, and began looking  for other actors to play the pivotal part. By the time von Sydow had  learned why his beloved role had been taken from him,  Jan Malmsjö (qv) had already been cast as the Bishop, and von  Sydow lost his chance to star in what would later be known to be  Bergmans "last film" (although he would play key roles in  _Den Goda viljan (1992)_ (qv) and  _Enskilda samtal (1996) (TV)_ (qv), both written by Bergman). Von  Sydow was furious about the incident, and, by certain accounts,  still harbours a bitter grudge about it to this day.