Pope Francis Biopic To Star Antonio Banderas

A Pope Francis biopic is reportedly in pre-production, and producers want Antonio Banderas to star as the young pope.

Pietro Valsecchi, one of Italy’s most successful film producers, has confirmed that he would like to bring the proposed project to fruition. However, it’s believed that it would most likely debut on Italian television rather than in cinemas.

Valsecchi has produced the comedies Sun in Buckets, translated as Sole a catinelle, and What a Beautiful Day, Che bella giornata, which were hugely successful in 2013 and 2011 respectively.

In fact, these two films are now the two most successful Italian movies of all time according to their domestic box office receipts.

He made the announcement in a television interview, confirming that it will be an English-language television movie based on Pope Francis’ life.

Valsecchi also confirmed his desire to have Banderas play the lead role. The Spanish actor is a native speaker of the language, just like Francis, who was born in Argentina. However, Banderas has yet to comment on the matter himself.

Two other papal cinema pieces are currently in production. Ridley Scott is currently working with Bruno Ganz, who will play an unspecified pope in The Vatican. Alejandro Agresti hopes to cast Rodrigo de la Serna as Pope Francis in his own biopic called Historia de un cura, A Priest’s Tale.

The film will examine Pope Francis, the man who was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, from his youth to his election as the first Argentinian head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Last week, it was revealed that Pope Francis almost died when he was a young man, and was saved by a nun.

He disclosed in a book that one of the sisters in a Buenos Aires hospital saved him:

“When I had lung problems in the hospital, the doctor gave me penicillin and antibiotics in small doses. The nun who was on the ward tripled that because she had an intuition, she knew what to do, because she was with the ill all day long. The doctor, who was very good, spent his time in a laboratory, but the nun was living on the front line and talking with those on the front line every day.”

Earlier today, it was also announced that the hugely popular pope has been voted Time Magazine’s Person Of The Year because of his more liberal stance on a number of issues including homosexuality and capitalism.

Would you go and watch a Pope Francis biopic starring Antonio Banderas?

[Image via Iacopo Guidi & vipflash/Shutterstock]