Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, best known for his Oscar-winning film The Great Beauty, is set to bring a much-hyped series to HBO starring British actor Jude Law. In The Young Pope, Law plays an American priest who becomes the head of the Catholic Church and whose controversial attitudes on how the religion should be run rubbing the establishment, and everyone else, up the wrong way.
Early reviews of the show’s first two episodes shown at this year’s Venice Film Festival heaped praise on the lavish budget and epic scope of Sorrentino’s odd vision, making it clearer than holy water that The Young Pope will become the new TV obsession of Catholics practicing, lapsed, agnostic, and not yet converted.
The eight-part series, a co-production between HBO, Canal + and Sky will debut on Irish screens on Sky Atlantic on October 27th, with Diane Keaton and James Cromwell appearing in supporting roles. Take a look at the trailer in full below:
