Jude Law to star as “The Young Pope”

Pope Lenny??

From Variety:

Jude Law will topline Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s TV series, with the working title “The Young Pope,” about an imaginary pontiff who is the first Italian-American pope in history. Rupert Murdoch’s paybox Sky and France’s Canal Plus will co-produce with HBO, marking the first multiple-player production of this type in Italy. The series is being produced by Italy’s Wildside, and co-produced by France’s Haut et Court TV. Executive producers for Wildside are Lorenzo Mieli and Mario Gianani together with John Lyons. Executive producers for Haut et Court TV are Caroline Benjo, Carole Scotta and Simon Arnal. Production on the eight-episode series is set to begin this summer and continue through early 2016. The show will film predominantly in Italy with additional locations to include the U.S., Africa and Puerto Rico. Law will play Lenny Belardo, a conservative American pontiff recruited by a Vatican fed up with liberals. “No one, even at the Vatican, is prepared for how hard-line this American pope really is,” Tony Grisoni, who is one of the writers, recently told Variety.

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