Ángel Gómez to Direct Screen Gem’s Genre Film “The Pope’s Exorcist”

Ángel Gómez is bringing the thrill to the Vatican

The 32-year-old Spanish filmmaker has been set by Screen Gems to direct The Pope’s Exorcist, a genre film that’s based on the exploits of Father Gabriele Amorth.

Ángel Gómez

He’s the legendary Italian priest who was the Chief Exorcist of the Vatican, and performed over 100,000 exorcisms for the Church.

Chester Hastings and R. Dean McCreary wrote the screenplay.

Michael Patrick Kaczmarek, Jeff Katz of Worldwide Katz and Loyola Productions president Eddie Siebert, SJ are producing. Eric Paquette, Michael Bitar and Giselle Johnson will oversee for Screen Gems.

Gómez made his directing debut on Voices and has become a leading voice of Spanish horror. The film was well received in its theatrical run in Spain and it premieres next month on Netflix.

Gomez cut his teeth directing award-winning shorts including Affection and Behind. He’s developing the latter as a feature at Lionsgate with Ghost House and Ground Control.

Screen Gems previously acquired life rights to Chief Exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth from Kaczmarek and Loyola and that includes his two international bestselling memoirs, An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories. Father Amorth, who died in 2016, left behind a trove of detailed accounts of his exploits pulling the devil out of people all over the world.

Father Amorth said relatively few of the exorcisms he performed qualified as true demonic possession, but he said his favorite film was the William Friedkin-directed The Exorcist, and that director turned the priest’s life work into the 2017 documentary The Devil and Father Amorth.