There have been quite a few exorcism movies made over the years, but none of them had two key ingredients: a pope and Russell Crowe. Well, the folks at Screen Gems are set to amend that situation as The Pope’s Exorcist, which is set to begin production this fall, has tapped Russell Crowe (Gladiator, Unhinged) to take on the lead role. This, according to The Hollywood Reporter, with the outlet revealing that the studio is aiming to get filming started in September.
The film will be based on the life of Father Gabriele Amorth, who performed a staggering 100,000 exorcisms in his lifetime. That is a whole lot of exorcising of demons. Beyond that, Amorth wrote not one, but two books about his exploits - An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories - which Screen Gems has the rights to and will undoubtedly go a long way to fuel the story in this film. Julius Avery of Overlord fame is on board to direct. Avery, in a brief statement, had this to say about it:
“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.”
No logline for the film has been released just yet, but the man’s life certainly has a lot to draw from. Amorth passed away at the age of 91 back in 2016, providing nine decades worth of exorcisms and what have you. The only real problem for Avery may be whittling that down to a two-hour film. The screenplay has gone through several hands, with Evan Spiliotopoulos (The Unholy) and Chuck MacLean (City on a Hill) handling rewrites. Chester Hastings and R. Dean McCreary penned original drafts, which were revised by Michael Petroni (Messiah). So yeah, it’s taken some doing to get this script in shape.
Crowe, meanwhile, has managed to stay quite busy as of late. The actor won an Oscar for his work in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, but more recently, he helped open theaters back up in 2020 with his thriller Unhinged. He’s also about to play Zeus in Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder, which opens next week. Amongst other things, he’s additionally starring in The Greatest Beer Run Ever for Apple TV+ and is filming Kraven the Hunter, another Marvel Comics adaptation, due out in theaters in January. Now he can add unquestioned champion of exorcisms to his impressive resume.
Avery, meanwhile, also has Samaritan starring Sylvester Stallone set to arrive later this year, which was delayed due to the pandemic multiple times. That serves as his follow-up to 2018’s zombie-filled WWII flick Overlord. Doug Belgrad, Michael Patrick Kaczmarek, Eddie Siebert and Jeff Katz are on board to produce the film, which will be filmed in Ireland.
The Pope’s Exorcist does not yet have a release date set.
