The Pope’s Exorcist: horror movie with touch of Da Vinci Code, Indiana Jones
Madrid, Apr 4 (EFE).- Russell Crowe steps into the shoes of Gabriel Amorth for The Pope’s Exorcist, a supernatural horror movie he says has elements of The Da Vinci Code and Indiana Jones.
“It’s got elements of a lot of different things, it’s got a touch of The Da Vinci Code, a touch of Indiana Jones but I don’t think it is a horror film like The Exorcist, I think it has different ambitions,” he says in an interview with Efe.
Oscar-winning Crowe says the movie was inspired by the archives of Father Amorth, who was appointed official exorcist of the diocese of Rome in 1986 and who founded the International Association of Exorcists (AIE) in 1990, an organization he presided over until his retirement in 2000.
Amorth was also known for his controversial statements.
According to the renowned exorcist, Pope John Paul II performed an exorcism on a demon-possessed young girl in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
Amorth also suggested that priests accused of child abuse had been “tempted” by the devil.
During his years as an active exorcist, Amorth performed more than 70,000 exorcisms, according to the priest’s accounts.
“No, I hadn’t heard of Father Amorth, I don’t think in any real deep sense perhaps in passing,” Crowe, who won an Oscar for his leading role in Gladiator (2000), says.
The actor says he read two of Amorth’s works to prepare for the character and traveled to Rome and spoke with many people.
“One of the things you have to be aware of when you are doing something like this is you know that the information that you are taking in and staying objective and not allowing yourself to slide completely into that world because you have to be objective towards it to portray it,” Crowe adds.
“The point-to-point of the narrative wasn’t as exciting as I wanted it to be,” Crowe says before chuckling.
“But the director and the producers and I got together and started bringing in real elements from Amorth’s life in order to tell the story through him and other real stories as well that have been hidden in terms of names being,” Crowe adds. EFE
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