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Get Ready for a Pope Francis Biopic

VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - MARCH 19: Pope Francis drives through the crowds during the Inauguration Mass for the Pope in St Peter's Square on March 19, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. The mass is being held in front of an expected crowd of up to one million pilgrims and faithful who have filled the square and the surrounding streets to see the former Cardinal of Buenos Aires officially take up his role as pontiff. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Photo: Spencer Platt/2013 Getty Images

We’ve all been fascinated by the newest leader of the Catholic church and with good reason: Pope Francis blesses motorcycles, performs accidental exorcisms, washes women’s feet, and is doing it all with only one lung. The man born Jorge Mario Bergoglio is so exceptional in fact that it was only a matter of time before the film industry got interested. And that time is now: It was announced Sunday at the Venice Film Festival that Argentinian director Alejandro Agresti (The Lake House) will take on the biopic Historia de un cura (A Priest’s Tale), which focuses on the life of Pope Francis from his childhood in Buenos Aires through the election that made him head of the Catholic Church. Rodrigo de la Serna (The Motorcycle Diaries) will play the pontificate.

Agresti told Variety: “More than a rapid biopic of key events, I’m more concerned with getting inside this very singular person, his decision to follow his vocation, and how he combined his faith and reason, having studied as a Jesuit for 14 years before being ordained.” He added the film will “focus on Bergoglio as a person” and be “an origins story told in flashbacks and flash-forwards as Bergoglio flies to Rome and attends the papal conclave after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.”

Producer Pablo Bossi said the film will shoot in Argentina, Italy, and Germany and require an “above-average” budget. Those fancy white hats aren’t cheap.

Get Ready for a Pope Francis Biopic