Steven Spielberg is wasting no time with his filmmaking. The legendary director has announced his next project will be The Kidnapping Of Edgardo Mortara, based off of the book of the same name by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Kertzer. Lincoln and Munich screenwriter Tony Kushner will be adapting the script. Mark Rylance, who appears to be quickly becoming Spielberg’s best friend, has also been announced to be tied to the project, starring as Pope Pius IX. Rylance is hot off of his best supporting actor Oscar win on Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, and is also starring in Spielberg’s upcoming family flick The BFG, which is set to release this summer.
The Kidnapping Of Edgardo Mortara – which was published in 1997 – tells the story of a young Jewish boy in Bologna, Italy in 1858. Having been secretly baptized, is forcibly taken from his family to be raised as a Christian. His parents’ struggle to free their son becomes part of a larger political battle that in turn creates turmoil between the Papacy and forces of democracy, and ultimately Italian consolidation.
While this appears to be Spielberg’s next project, he is also readying Ready Player One and a fifth Indiana Jones film in the near future. The film is set to start production in early 2017, with a release date in the latter half of that year.
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