Russell Crowehas two new co-stars coming his way in the supernatural thriller,The Pope’s Exorcist. According toDeadline, the Oscar-winning actor will be joined byAlex Essoe(Midnight Mass) andDaniel Zovatto(Station Eleven) in theJulius Avery-helmed spooky feature.
The Pope’s Exorcistwill pull its plot from the real life events written about in Father Gabriele Amorth’s memoirs,An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories. Throughout his decades-long career in the religious world, Father Amorth would perform thousands of exorcisms, and ended up with stories that he knew needed to be jotted down before his death. Sadly, the priest passed away in 2016, but not before he completed his desired task.
He was so good at his job, that he became the official exorcist for the diocese of Rome and was even given the title of the Vatican’s Chief Exorcist. Fun fact - the Father once said that his favorite movie wasWilliam Friedkin’sThe Exorcistas he believed it to be factual albeit with some over-the-top effects. As of right now, we know that Crowe will be stepping into the role of the demon dispelling member of the church, with no news as to who Essoe and Zovatto will be playing.
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While things are just beginning to move forward on the production, this has been one that Screen Gems has had in the works for a number of years. After acquiring Father Amorth’s life rights as well as the rights to his memoirs, the production company put their plan into motion withÁngel Gómezinitially tapped to direct. The most recent draft of the screenplay comes fromEvan Spiliotopouloswith editing and revisions penned byChuck Maclean.
Both Essoe and Zovatto are no strangers to the supernatural horror genre, giving them each a solid background to step into the exorcism based film. For Essoe, she starred in theMike Flanagan’s Netflix miniseriesMidnight Massas well as in the director’s feature length telling ofStephen King’sDoctor Sleep, which was a followup story toThe Shining. Next up, Essoe will appear inAriel Vida’s thrillerTrim Season. As for Avery, he’s had his hands full with a slew of projects over the past several years including the 2018 history meets zombie flick,Overlord, which starredJoseph Quinnand theEwan McGregorstarring 2014 thriller,Son of a Gun. On August 26, the filmmaker will drop his latest project, a vigilante action film starringSylvester StallonetitledSamaritan.
Zovatto’s most recent project was HBO Max’sStation Elevenwhere he appeared in the miniseries surrounding a too-close-to-home Earth wiping pandemic plotline. The actor also nabbed a leading role in the one season supernatural series,Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. On the film side of things, Zovatto has appeared in celebrated horror flickIt Followsas well asGreta Gerwig’s solo directorial debut piece,Lady Bird.
The production team forThe Pope’s Exorcistwill include 2.0 Entertainment’sDoug Belgrad, Jesus & Mary’sMichael Patrick Kaczmarek, Worldwide Katz’sJeff Katz, andEddie Siebertof Loyola Productions. Screen Gems’Scott Strauss,Michael Bitar, andGiselle Johnsonwill oversee.
As of right now,The Pope’s Exorcisthas not revealed a release date. Check out a trailer for Avery’s upcoming action thriller,Samaritanbelow:
