Russell Crowe has signed on to play real-life Italian Catholic priest Father Gabriele Amorth in The Pope’s Exorcist, a new film by Julius Avery (Overlord).
Amorth acted as the chief exorcist of the Vatican and performed more than 100,000 exorcisms in his lifetime. He passed away in 2016 at the age of 91, but prior to that wrote two memoirs – An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories – which detail his experiences battling Satan and demons for the Catholic church.
Director William Friedkin (The Exorcist) previously turned the priest’s life work into the 2017 documentary The Devil and Father Amorth. Screen Gems acquired the rights to Amorth’s work from Michael Patrick Kaczmarek and faith-based media company Loyola Productions. The deal included rights to both of Amorth’s books.
There’s no logline for The Pope’s Exorcist, but we know Evan Spiliotopoulos has penned the script, with revisions by Chuck MacLean. Avery said in a brief statement: “It’s been a goal of mine to work with Russell. To collaborate with him on the amazing Pope’s Exorcist is truly a dream come true.”
There should be plenty of bizarre stories to mine from Amorth’s books, and Crowe is always a compelling screen presence. He’ll next be seen in Thor: Love and Thunder, and also has drama Poker Face due out this year. He’s currently working on superhero film Kraven The Hunter, comedy The Greatest Beer Run Ever, and horror The Georgetown Project.
Production on The Pope’s Exorcist is expected to begin in Ireland in September.
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