Disclaimer: Please forgive this foray into somewhat lighter matters. For those hoping for the sort of heavy theological and sociopolitical analysis of the kind I usually produce, you’ll just have to wait, either forever or for Pat Thornton’s next article, whichever comes first.
Yes, they are making a movie. Sounds like a good group of people doing it too – they even want Pope Francis’ approval of the script before they start production. The movie will be called Friend of the Poor: The Pope Francis Story. According to producer Christian Peschken, he hopes to debut the movie at a special screening in the Vatican on December 17, 2014. Habemus popcorn?
Meanwhile, because I’m shallow, I started to speculate on who would be the best actor to play Pope Francis. I’m not a filmmaker, so my idea for who should portray a person is basically just whoever looks most like him (see shallow, above). That got me wondering who could play some of the other pontiffs on the silver screen (I know, it’s been done – I thought Cary Elwes was great as the young Karol Wojtyla).
Anyway, I got as far back as Pius XII and here’s what I came up with:
Pope Francis… Jonathan Pryce
Pope Benedict XVI… Anthony Hopkins
Pope John Paul II… Ed Harris
Pope John Paul I… Dustin Hoffman
Pope Paul VI… Jean Reno
Pope John XXIII… Joe Pesci
Pope Pius XII… Hugo Weaving
Okay, like I said, this isn’t my area of expertise.
So please, share. Who would you like to see play your favorite pope on screen?