Steven Spielberg will direct a film about the struggle of a 19th-century Jewish couple to regain their son who was forcibly taken and raised as a Christian after secretly being baptized.
The script for “The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara” was written by Tony Award-winning playwright Tony Kushner based on the nonfiction book by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Kertzer.
The 1997 book tells the story of a 6-year-old boy who was seized from his family’s home in Bologna, Italy, in 1858 after his “baptism” as an infant by a family servant. The family went up against Pope Pius IX, who took a personal interest in the boy, in their efforts to have him returned in a case that became an international cause célèbre.
Spielberg “has been attached to this film for some time,” Variety reported. He is set to begin shooting the film early next year.
Mark Rylance, who starred in Spielberg’s 2015 hit “Bridge of Spies” and in February won the Academy Award for best supporting actor, is set to play Pope Pius IX. — jta