Russell Crowe will star in The Exorcist of the Pope, a supernatural thriller that Julius Avery, the director behind the 2018 horror film Overlord, will direct for Screen Gems.
Crowe will play real-life figure Father Gabriele Amorth, a priest who served as the Vatican's chief exorcist, performing more than 100,000 exorcisms in his lifetime. Amorth wrote two memoirs, An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories, and detailed his experiences fighting demons that had trapped people in his evil.
Screen Gems previously acquired the life rights to Michael Patrick Kaczmarek's Chief Exorcist and faith-based media company Loyola Productions; the deal included the rights to Amorth's two international best-selling volumes. Amorth also left behind other treasure troves of detailed accounts of his exploits in driving the devil out of people around the world.
Director: Nida Manzoor
Writer: Nida Manzoor
Stars: Ritu Arya, Ella Bruccoleri, Shobu Kapoor
“It has been a goal of mine to work with Russell,” Avery said in a statement. "Collaborating with him on the amazing Pope's Exorcist is truly a dream come true." Producers are Doug Belgrad through his 2.0 Entertainment, as well as Kaczmarek, who produces through his shingle, Jesus & Mary, Loyola President Eddie Siebert and Jeff Katz of Worldwide Katz.
A September production start in Ireland is being planned. The current script is by Evan Spiliotopoulos with revisions by Chuck MacLean. That, in turn, is based on the original drafts revised by Michael Petroni of Chester Hastings and R. Dean McCreary. Scott Strauss, Michael Bitar and Giselle Johnson are overseeing the Screen Gems project.
Avery, represented by CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, has next up with Samaritan, a superhero thriller starring Sylvester Stallone, coming to Amazon on August 26.
Crowe, who won an Oscar for his work in 2000's Gladiator, is heading into a busy period. He recently wrapped up a turn in Sony's Marvel film Kraven the Hunter and chews up the stage as Zeus in Taika Waititi's Thor: Love and Thunder, with the latter opening on July 8.
The film centers on Father Gabriele Amorth (Crowe), the legendary Italian priest who performed more than 100,000 exorcisms for the Vatican, based on his international best-selling memoirs An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories.
The Pope's Exorcist has been in the making at Screen Gems for several years, with Ángel Gómez previously attached to direct beginning in 2020. Evan Spiliotopoulos wrote the current draft of the script, with revisions by Chuck MacLean and Michael Petroni, which is based on an original draft revised for Petroni by Chester Hastings and R. Dean McCreary. 2.0 Entertainment's Doug Belgrad is producing along with Michael Patrick Kaczmarek for Jesus & Mary, Worldwide Katz's Jeff Katz and Loyola Productions President Eddie Siebert, with Scott Strauss, Michael Bitar and Giselle Johnson overseeing the project for Screen Gems.
Nero is best known for his lead role in the Italian spaghetti western Django, which served as the inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, and also led the actor to become a pop culture icon, over the course of an international career of more than of 200 papers. Additional credits include Camelot, The Mercenary, The Battle of Neretva, and Confessions of a Police Captain.
Marsden was most recently seen in Marvel's Disney+ series Ms. Marvel and will next star opposite Asa Butterfield and Natalia Dyer in the horror thriller All Fun and Games. John has appeared in shows like Gangs of London and in movies like Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
Nero is represented by Chatto & Linnit and Gavin Barker Associates in the UK, and by Muse Management; Marsden of Encompass and Zero Gravity Management; John of the Curtis Brown Group in the UK.
He also has a couple of canned movies, including Peter Farrelly's The Greatest Beer Run Ever, created at Apple, and Poker Face, which he directed, wrote and stars in alongside Liam Hemsworth and RZA. Crowe is represented by Brillstein Entertainment and Goodman Genow. Petroni is represented by UTA and Industry Entertainment. Hastings and McCreary are represented by Gersh and Gochman Law.
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