{"id":90,"date":"2008-09-18T12:19:33","date_gmt":"2008-09-18T12:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/2008\/09\/sorry-no-father-brad-pitt-how.html"},"modified":"2008-09-18T12:19:33","modified_gmt":"2008-09-18T12:19:33","slug":"sorry-no-father-brad-pitt-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/09\/sorry-no-father-brad-pitt-how.html","title":{"rendered":"Sorry, no “Father” Brad Pitt. How about Philip Seymour Hoffman?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brad<\/form>\n

A couple of weeks ago I picked up on the entertaining news<\/a>, via Jim Martin at “In All Things,” that Brad Pitt would be playing Father Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit scientist, in the film version of Mary Doria Russell’s “The Sparrow.” (Father Martin is a Jesuit, hence his understandable excitment–makes pitching vocations a lot easier…) Now it turns out it isn’t happening. Alas. Some plugged-in commenters over at dotCommonweal<\/a> who know Mary Russell <\/a>say it was always more rumor than fact (and many say Pitt wouldn’t be right for the role). According to Martin Connell:<\/p>\n

“I just heard from Mary about this, and this is her reply. Jim Martin gets a ten for historical accuracy, a minus 3 for reportage. It’s old news-and now wrong news. The option is open until spring 09, but there no director for the screen play. Although Mr. Pitt was a fan of the books, the project seems to have fallen off the table.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So how about Philip Seymour Hoffman?! Father Jim reports on the new trailer for the film “Doubt,” <\/a>based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, which is about a Catholic priest (Hoffman) suspected of sexual improprieties by a sister (Streep) in 1964. She wonders whether she is right, however, and as much as any treatment of the clergy abuse scandal, this play gets to the heart of the matter. Jim Martin was a “technical adviser” on the film, which will be out on December 12. I think that means he taught Sister Meryl to make the Sign of the Cross…Anyway, see the trailer:<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago I picked up on the entertaining news, via Jim Martin at “In All Things,” that Brad Pitt would be playing Father Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit scientist, in the film version of Mary Doria Russell’s “The Sparrow.” (Father Martin is a Jesuit, hence his understandable excitment–makes pitching vocations a lot easier…)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic","category-church","category-pop-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nSorry, no "Father" Brad Pitt. How about Philip Seymour Hoffman? - Pontifications<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/09\/sorry-no-father-brad-pitt-how.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sorry, no "Father" Brad Pitt. How about Philip Seymour Hoffman? - Pontifications\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A couple of weeks ago I picked up on the entertaining news, via Jim Martin at “In All Things,” that Brad Pitt would be playing Father Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit scientist, in the film version of Mary Doria Russell’s “The Sparrow.” (Father Martin is a Jesuit, hence his understandable excitment–makes pitching vocations a lot easier…)…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/09\/sorry-no-father-brad-pitt-how.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pontifications\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-09-18T12:19:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/imgs\/Brad%20Pitt%2C%20SJ.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Gibson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sorry, no \"Father\" Brad Pitt. How about Philip Seymour Hoffman? - Pontifications","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/09\/sorry-no-father-brad-pitt-how.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sorry, no \"Father\" Brad Pitt. How about Philip Seymour Hoffman? - Pontifications","og_description":"A couple of weeks ago I picked up on the entertaining news, via Jim Martin at “In All Things,” that Brad Pitt would be playing Father Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit scientist, in the film version of Mary Doria Russell’s “The Sparrow.” (Father Martin is a Jesuit, hence his understandable excitment–makes pitching vocations a lot easier…)…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/09\/sorry-no-father-brad-pitt-how.html","og_site_name":"Pontifications","article_published_time":"2008-09-18T12:19:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/imgs\/Brad%20Pitt%2C%20SJ.jpg"}],"author":"David Gibson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/09\/sorry-no-father-brad-pitt-how.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/09\/sorry-no-father-brad-pitt-how.html","name":"Sorry, no \"Father\" Brad Pitt. How about Philip Seymour Hoffman? - Pontifications","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/09\/sorry-no-father-brad-pitt-how.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/09\/sorry-no-father-brad-pitt-how.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/imgs\/Brad%20Pitt%2C%20SJ.jpg","datePublished":"2008-09-18T12:19:33+00:00","dateModified":"2008-09-18T12:19:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#\/schema\/person\/122b0877ab87552bb8f14c366dd43e71"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/09\/sorry-no-father-brad-pitt-how.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/09\/sorry-no-father-brad-pitt-how.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/09\/sorry-no-father-brad-pitt-how.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/imgs\/Brad%20Pitt%2C%20SJ.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/imgs\/Brad%20Pitt%2C%20SJ.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/09\/sorry-no-father-brad-pitt-how.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sorry, no “Father” Brad Pitt. How about Philip Seymour Hoffman?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/","name":"Pontifications","description":"Catholic Faith and Culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#\/schema\/person\/122b0877ab87552bb8f14c366dd43e71","name":"David Gibson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/19b\/19bb39c535cd2d776c73c7941f42622cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/19b\/19bb39c535cd2d776c73c7941f42622cx96.jpg","caption":"David Gibson"},"description":"DAVID GIBSON is an award-winning religion journalist, author, filmmaker, and a convert to Catholicism. He came by all those vocations by accident, or Providence, during a longer-than-expected sojourn in Rome in the 1980s. Gibson began his journalistic career as a walk-on sports editor and columnist at The International Courier, a small daily in Rome serving Italy's English-language community. He then found a job as a newscaster and writer across the Tiber at the English Programme at Vatican Radio, an entity he describes as a cross between NPR and Armed Forces Radio for the pope. The Jesuits who ran the radio were charitable enough to hire Gibson even though he had no radio background, could not pronounce the name \"Karol Wojtyla,\" and wasn't Catholic. Time and experience overcame all those challenges, and Gibson went on to cover dozens of John Paul II's overseas trips, including papal visits to Africa, Europe, Latin America and the United States. When Gibson returned to the United States in 1990 he returned to print journalism to cover the religion beat in his native New Jersey for two dailies. He worked first for The Record of Hackensack, and then for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, winning the nation's top awards in religion writing at both places. In 1999 he won the Supple Religion Writer of the Year contest, and in 2000 he was chosen as the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year. Gibson is a longtime board member of the Religion Newswriters Association and he is a contributor to ReligionLink, a service of the Religion Newswriters Foundation. Since 2003, David Gibson has been an independent writer specializing in Catholicism, religion in contemporary America, and early Christian history. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Boston Magazine, Commonweal, America, The New York Observer, Beliefnet and Religion News Service. He has produced documentaries on early Christianity for CNN and other networks and has traveled on assignment to dozens of countries, with an emphasis on reporting from Europe and the Middle East. He is a frequent television commentator and has appeared on the major cable and broadcast networks. He is also a regular speaker at conferences and seminars on Catholicism, religion in America, and journalism. Gibson's first book, The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism (HarperSanFrancisco), was published in 2003 and deals with the church-wide crisis revealed by the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The book was widely hailed as a \"powerful\" and \"first-rate\" treatment of the crisis from \"an academically informed journalist of the highest caliber.\" His second book, The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World (HarperSanFrancisco), came out in 2006 and is the first full-scale treatment of the Ratzinger papacy--how it happened, who he is, and what it means for the Catholic Church. The Rule of Benedict has been praised as \"an exceptionally interesting and illuminating book\" from \"a master storyeller.\" Born and raised in New Jersey, David Gibson studied European history at Furman University in South Carolina and spent a year working on Capitol Hill before moving to Italy. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter and is working on a book about conversion, and on several film and television projects.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/author\/dgibson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}