Screenwriter Anthony McCarten (who later wrote the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody) adapted his own stage play for the film. He drew inspira
Screenwriter Anthony McCarten (who later wrote the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody) adapted his own stage play for the film. He drew inspiration from various speeches and statements the men had made over the years to craft a story in which they debate their disparate philosophies and the evolving position of the church itself. “I imagined this was built around a double confession by these two popes. And they were monologues, and they remain monologues in the play, but when you do a movie, the resources were there to be able to actually turn these into flashbacks,” he told Vanity Fair in 2019.
Pryce spoke about the transformational influence of Francis, who was praised for liberalizing church policies on many issues. “The person who created this religion was a highly political figure and seen as a very dangerous figure by the establishment of that time. I’m talking about Christ, obviously,” Pryce once told Vanity Fair. “What he was saying and doing, certainly, what he was saying was very similar to what the message of the film is, which is to care for your fellow man, to have empathy and sympathy, to take care of the dispossessed and the poor.”
The Pope Must Die (1991)
Okay, most pope stories are ponderous tales, rife with high emotion and deep meaning. This one is not that. It’s utterly ridiculous. But who says the pope can’t have a laugh? (Or take a joke?)
Robbie Coltrane, now best known as Hagrid from the Harry Potter films, starred as a fun-loving parish priest who doesn’t take the vow of celibacy very seriously, rocks out to Guns ‘n’ Roses, and accidentally stumbles into the leadership role due to a ballot error during a Vatican conclave. No, it doesn’t make sense, but remember when John Goodman became the sovereign ruler of England in King Ralph? Same kind of deal. Just go with it.
So, the pope is a slob, but he means well. He discovers the Mafia has infiltrated the Vatican and is using it for gun running and other criminal enterprises, which puts a literal target on his mitre. The party-down pope is marked for death, which triggered a real-world controversy, so the film was retitled The Pope Must Diet, out of concerns the title advocated violence. (On posters, the added letter looked more like a crucifix than a letter.)
“There’s a lot of thickos who will take it in the wrong way,” Coltrane said in The Independent at the time. “But anyone who sees it as an attack on Catholicism is being paranoid and perhaps feeling a bit guilty about something.”
Despite the church’s stance against The Pope Must Die(t), Coltrane maintained that John Paul II should watch it. “I think the pope seems quite a jolly fellow,” Coltrane said. “He might enjoy it.”
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