The Pope’s Exorcist, starring Russell Crowe, is getting two new co-stars. Alex Essoe (Midnight Mass) and Daniel Zovatto (Station Eleven) will also star in Julius Avery’s frightening film, according to Deadline. The narrative of The Pope’s Exorcist is based on Father Gabriele Amorth’s memoirs, An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories, which detail his experiences as an exorcist. It was Father Amorth’s goal to record all of the exorcism accounts that came to him throughout the course of his decades-long career in the Catholic world. It was too late for the priest, who tragically passed away in 2016, to see his mission through. He excelled at his work to the point that he was named the Vatican’s Chief Exorcist and made the official exorcist for the Roman diocese.
His favourite film was William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, which he considered to be accurate despite its over-the-top effects. While we do know that Crowe will portray the church member tasked with casting forth demons, we haven’t heard a thing about Essoe or Zovatto’s characters yet. The project is just getting started, although this has been in the works at Screen Gems for quite some time. Father Amorth’s life and memoir rights were purchased by the production business after purchasing them. Initially, ngel Gómez was slated to helm. With Chuck Maclean’s editing and modifications, Evan Spiliotopoulos has written the most recent version of the script. Both Essoe and Zovatto have extensive experience in the supernatural horror genre, making them well-suited to the exorcism-based story they’re working on.
In addition to the Netflix miniseries Midnight Mass, which she featured in with Mike Flanagan, Essoe also appeared in the director’s feature-length adaptation of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, a sequel to The Shining. Ariel Vida’s psychological thriller Trim Season will feature Essoe next. The last several years have been busy for Avery, who has worked on a host of movies, including the 2018 zombie film Overlord, which featured Joseph Quinn, and the 2014 thriller Son of a Gun, which starred Ewan McGregor. Samaritan, a film starring Sylvester Stallone, will be released by the director on August 26. Zovatto’s most recent production was Station Eleven, a miniseries about an Earth-wiping epidemic that came too close to home for comfort.
One season’s supernatural series Penny Dreadful: City of Angels also featured the actor. It follows and Lady Bird is two of Zovatto’s most notable cinematic appearances, both of which were directed by Greta Gerwig. Doug Belgrad of 2.0 Entertainment and Jesus & Mary’s Michael will be part of the production crew for The Pope’s Exorcist. Among those in attendance were Loyola Productions Eddie Siebert and Jeff Katz of Worldwide Katz. It will be overseen by Screen Gems’ Scott Strauss, Michael Bitar, and Giselle Johnson. The release date for The Pope’s Exorcist has not been announced yet.