The Pope on the screen
The shooting of the film depicting late Pope John Paul II's life will start in August in Poland and in Italy. The project is directed by John Kent Harrison and produced by the Italian channel RAI and Lux Vide in cooperation with the American CBS station.
Starring Ian Holm in the role of John Paul II during his pontificate , the English actor recently performed Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. Holm received two Bafta Awards and a prize for his performance in Cannes in Hugh Hudson's Chariots of fire. He already performed the role of another famous Polish man - Lech Walesa - in the TV reconstruction of the Gdañsk strike which took place in 1980 (Strike: The Birth of Solidarity, dir. Boles³aw Sulik). The young Karol Wojtyla will be performed by Cary Elwes (Saw by James Wan, The Princess Bride by Rob Reiner).
The film, whose provisional title is Pope John Paul II, will recount John Paul II's life from his childhood in Wadowice, his youth in Cracovie through his pontificate and up to his death last April. The film producers submitted the script to the Vatican's historians authority. The film is to premiere on CBS next November.
(Translated from French)
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