One of the projects on Sir Spielberg’s docket, alongside READY PLAYER ONE and ROBOPOCALYPSE, has been an adaptation of David Kertzer’s THE KIDNAPPING OF EDGARDO MORTARA, written by his LINCOLN scribe Tony Kushner. According to Deadline, that project has shot to the front of his agenda, in between PLAYER ONE and INDIANA JONES 5, and his newly-minted Oscar-winning collaborator, Mark Rylance, will star as The Pope.
The story takes place in mid-1800s Italy, where the central boy is kidnapped from his Jewish family and is raised as a Christian. Rylance plays Pope Pius IX, who gets involved when the attempt to recover the child becomes an important religious and political issue.
This seems like a bounce back to the BRIDGE OF SPIES/LINCOLN “serious Spielberg” after his return to family filmmaking with BFG and before he gets all pulpy again with INDIANA JONES. There has to be some deep-seeded appeal for Spielberg if this is taking priority after his much more anticipated potential blockbusters, and with his new buddy Rylance onboard, he might be able to pin down his first Director and Picture Oscars since SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and SCHINDLER’S LIST, respectively.
But it’d take some serious rapping with Steve Lipton to learn how to pretend that I’m excited that Spielberg’s taking this for his next over those other projects. That’d require some Daniel Day-Lewis-level talent.
