Spielberg already has locked up his newest lucky charm, Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies, The BFG, Ready Player One), to play Pope Pius IX – though it’s not entirely clear when production will begin.
The film was initially scheduled to start production in early 2017 and be released later in the year, but Spielberg wound up making The Post instead.
Steven Spielberg LOVES squeezing historical dramas that could contend for Oscars in between his popcorn blockbusters, so it shouldn’t surprise too many people that the director has become fascinated by the story in The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara.
Based on the novel by David Kertzer and adapted by Lincoln and Munich screenwriter Tony Kushner, the film will tell the story of a young Jewish boy who is secretly baptized then forcibly stolen from his parents to be raised Christian in 19th Century Italy.