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Jude Law is “The Young Pope” for Paolo Sorrentino

Italian director Paolo Sorrentino who won a Foreign Language Golden Globe in 2014 for The Great Beauty is widely considered the artistic heir to Federico Fellini. He brings his unique sensibility to The Young Pope a Sky Atlantic/Canal+/HBO co-production, which is his first foray into serial fiction. Starring three-time Globe nominee Jude Law, James Cromwell, Diane Keaton and Silvio Orlando Young Pope imagines the election of a youthful, chain smoking prelate (Law) to the throne of Peter and the upheaval he provokes in the staid Vatican hierarchy with his unusual and strictly conservative reforms. In Venice, where the pilot was shown as part of the Venice Festival, Sorrentino told the HFPA that the initial concept had been to portray a very liberal pope, but when Pope Francis was actually elected, that idea began to seem unoriginal. Instead the fanciful scenario may now resonate especially with American audiences who can simultaneously follow similar upheaval in Washington. Here is what Jude Law told us about the project.