Russel Crowe is set to star in The Pope’s Exorcist, a film by Julius Avery, THR reports. The Academy award-winner is set to portray the real-life figure of Italian Catholic priest Father Gabriele Amorth. The priest acted as the chief exorcist of the Vatican and performed more than 100,000 exorcisms in his lifetime.

Amorth passed away in 2016 at the age of 91, he wrote two memoirs during his lifetime, An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories, which detail his experiences battling Satan and demons for the Catholic church The priest told Vanity Fair in a 2016 interview,

The ritual of exorcism is not practiced by an ordinary priest. An exorcist requires specific training and must be thought to have a personal sanctity. He can be exposed to dangerous behavior and personal threat. His prayers often cause a violent response as he attempts to shine a beam of light into the darkness.

Previously, The Exorcist director William Friedkin turned the priest’s life work into the 2017 documentary The Devil and Father Amorth. Screen Gems acquired the rights to Amorth’s work from Michael Patrick Kaczmarek and faith-based media company Loyola Productions. The deal included rights to Amorth’s two international bestselling books. The chief exorcist also left behind other troves of detailed accounts of his experiences of pulling the devil out of people around the world.

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In an official statement, Avery said, “It’s been a goal of mine to work with Russell. To collaborate with him on the amazing Pope’s Exorcist is truly a dream come true.” The director previously helmed the 2018 horror flick Overlord. His other directorial credits include the crime drama Son of a Gun starring Ewan McGregor, and the upcoming Sylvester Stallone starrer Samaritan for Amazon.

The production is set to begin in September in Ireland. The script is penned by Evan Spiliotopoulos with revisions by Chuck MacLean. The script in turn is based on Michael Petroni-revised original drafts by Chester Hastings and R. Dean McCreary. The Pope’s Excorcist is being produced by Doug Belgrad via his 2.0 Entertainment and Kaczmarek along with Loyola president Eddie Siebert and Jeff Katz of Worldwide Katz. Scott Strauss, Michael Bitar, and Giselle Johnson will oversee the project for Screen Gems.

The Gladiator star will be next seen in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder alongside Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman. Crowe recently finished filming Sony Pictures’ Kraven The Hunter starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson.