Daniel Zovatto to Star Opposite Russell Crowe in Screen Gems’ Supernatural Thriller “The Pope’s Exorcist”

Daniel Zovatto exorcising his right to work…

The 31-year-old Argentinian-Costa Rican actor will star opposite Russell Crowe in Screen Gems’ supernatural thriller The Pope’s Exorcist.

Daniel ZovattoDirected by Julius Avery, the film stars Crowe as Father Gabriele Amorth, the legendary Italian priest who performed over 100,000 exorcisms for the Vatican—drawing on his international bestselling memoirs An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories.

Father Amorth, who died in 2016, left behind a trove of additional accounts of his exploits pulling the devil out of people all over the world.

Screen Gems acquired his life rights for the project, along with rights to his memoirs.

Details on Zovatto’s role have not been disclosed.

The Pope’s Exorcist has been gestating at Screen Gems for a number of years, with Ángel Gómez having previously been attached to direct as of 2020.

Evan Spiliotopoulos wrote the current draft of the script, with revisions by Chuck MacLean, which is based on Michael Petroni-revised original drafts by Chester Hastings & R. Dean McCreary.

Zovatto can currently be seen on HBO Max’s Station Eleven and has also appeared on series like Penny Dreadful: City of Angels and Here and Now.

His other notable film credits include Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, Drake Doremus’ Newness, Fede Alvarez’s Don’t Breathe, David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows, and the late Lynn Shelton’s Laggies.