After winning an Oscar for 2013's The Great Beauty and bagging Michael Caine for 2015's Youth, director Paolo Sorrentino, like other recent great filmmakers, was drawn to the allure of golden-era TV with The Young Pope. True to its title, that limited series starred Jude Law as a particularly young, decidedly American, and radically different Pope.
Now it’s time to send up the white smoke, because Sorrentino is back for another series, this time titled The New Pope and featuring John Malkovich as, you guessed it, a new Pope. Law will reportedly be back too, logically reprising the role of Pope Pius XIII — though no details are confirmed yet. With new Popes often replacing dead Popes, it could be that Malkovich’s leader could be replacing Law’s if he is, indeed, dead. In fact, it’s not even explicit whether this is a direct narrative sequel to The Young Pope, and it’s rather being pitched by HBO and Sky as Sorrentino’s second look at the modern papacy. What we do know is that it’s a) new, and b) about a Pope.
As with The Young Pope, Sorrentino is both writing and directing here, and The New Pope is set to shoot this November in Italy. That suggests a likely airdate in 2019 — but expect more updates in the coming months.
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