{"id":24798,"date":"2023-04-24T08:47:44","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T12:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=24798"},"modified":"2023-04-24T08:47:44","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T12:47:44","slug":"russell-crowe-stars-as-the-james-bond-of-exorcists-in-latest-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/04\/russell-crowe-stars-as-the-james-bond-of-exorcists-in-latest-film.html","title":{"rendered":"Russell Crowe Stars as &#8220;The James Bond of Exorcists&#8221; in Latest Film"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_24804\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24804\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/04\/russell-crowe-credit-debby-wong-shutterstock-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24804\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/04\/russell-crowe-credit-debby-wong-shutterstock-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"russell crowe\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24804\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Debby Wong\/Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Reverend Edward Siebert\u2019s journey with \u201cThe Pope\u2019s Exorcist,\u201d a movie about the Catholic Church\u2019s most famous exorcist, started with a trip to Milan six years ago. The Jesuit priest says he was sitting at a restaurant drinking wine and contemplating an airline ticket he had bought a day earlier. He was also concerned about the deal he had recently closed with the Society of St. Paul to buy the rights to the life story of the Reverend Gabriele Amorth, the late Pauline priest known as \u201cthe James Bond of exorcists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Siebert, who teaches film at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and maintains the school\u2019s film production company, didn\u2019t have any motion picture credits to his name and, at the time, wondered, \u201cWhat have I gone and done?\u201d Today, he breathes a sigh of relief as an adaptation of Amorth\u2019s life unfolds on the big screen as \u201cThe Pope\u2019s Exorcist,\u201d starring Rusell Crowe in the titular role, opened in theatres earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>In 1986, Amorth was appointed chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome and stayed there until 2016, when he died at 91. During his time, he claimed to have done more than 60,000 exorcisms. The first of his books, \u201cAn Exorcist Tells His Story,\u201d was released in 1990, becoming an instant bestseller and translated into over 30 languages. Amorth named \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d his favorite movie that same year and founded the International Association of Exorcists.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YJXqvnT_rsk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Siebert, also one of the film\u2019s executive producers, says he was a doubtful candidate to do this project. However, he said Michael Patrick Kaczmarek, a New Mexico-based filmmaker he worked with, persuaded him with the power of Amorth\u2019s stories. According to Kaczmarek, in 2015, he reached out to Amorth through his religious order\u2019s publishing company. The executives told him many people tried to get the film and production rights for the exorcist\u2019s books but were always denied. Still, Kaczmarek\u2019s persistence paid off.<\/p>\n<p>Kaczmarek said, \u201cThrough the use of translators, I sent Father Amorth detailed correspondence where I assured him of my religious devotion and sincere desire to respect his exorcism ministry.\u201d He added that his team effort with Siebert helped sway Amorth of his intent to uphold the story\u2019s religious integrity. Siebert said Amorth\u2019s stories scared him initially, but he was moved by the priest\u2019s faith and willpower to help people. Amorth said 98 percent of the people who asked for his help needed a psychiatrist, not an exorcist, a detail Crowe\u2019s character clarifies in the movie.<\/p>\n<p>Like Siebert, Crowe has also admitted that he\u2019s not a horror movie fan during various media interviews because he prefers \u201cto sleep deeply at night.\u201d However, he said Amorth\u2019s character intrigued him. He read the priest\u2019s first two books and spoke with people who watched him perform exorcisms. Crowe said two attributes of Amorth\u2019s character reeled him in, his \u201cunshakable purity of faith and his wicked sense of humor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In \u201cThe Pope\u2019s Exorcist,\u201d set in 1987, Crowe\u2019s Amorth goes to Spain with his apprentice to investigate a young boy\u2019s possession. In Spain, he uncovers a \u201ccenturies-old conspiracy\u201d the Vatican attempted to cover up. \u201cThe Pope\u2019s Exorcist\u201d is currently in theatres.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Reverend Edward Siebert\u2019s journey with \u201cThe Pope\u2019s Exorcist,\u201d a movie about the Catholic Church\u2019s most famous exorcist, started with a trip to Milan six years ago. The Jesuit priest says he was sitting at a restaurant drinking wine and contemplating an airline ticket he had bought a day earlier. He was also concerned about&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":24804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,3],"tags":[668,5520],"class_list":["post-24798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","category-entertainment","category-movies","tag-russell-crowe","tag-the-popes-exorcist"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Russell Crowe Stars as &quot;The James Bond of Exorcists&quot; in Latest Film<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In &quot;The Pope&#039;s Exorcist,&quot; Russell Crowe plays Revered Gabriele Amorth, a Pauline priest who claimed to have performed over 60,000 exorcisms.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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