director Daniele Luchetti announced earlier this week he plans to make a film on Pope Francis’ life before Jorge Mario Bergoglio became pope. It would be the first feature film about Pope Francis.
Luchetti, who has won five David di Donatello awards, said on the radio program “Un giorno da pecora” that he plans to begin filming in Argentina around mid-October. He has already contacted the actor he would like to play the young Bergoglio, the Argentinian Rodrigo De La Serna of “The Motorcycle Diaries”. No word yet on who would be playing the older Bergoglio.
Producer Piero Valsecchi plans to release the film in Italy on the pope’s 78th birthday, Dec. 17, or in January at the latest, according to Variety. The film would be titled “Call me Francesco” and is based on the bestselling book “Francisco. El Papa de la gente” by journalist Evangelina Himitian, of the Buenos Aires newspaper La Nacion.
Luchetti said on the radio he would like to make two versions of the story, one for the big screen and the other as a tv series.
