Director Steven Spielberg has settled on his next directing project, a fact-based story that will shoot this January and reteam him with Oscar-winning “Bridge of Spies” star Mark Rylance.
After wrapping the sci-fi movie “Ready Player One,” Spielberg will tackle “The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara” for Amblin Entertainment.
Tony Kushner adapted the fact-based story from a 1997 book by David Kertzer.
The story follows a young Italian Jewish boy in the 19th century who is removed from his family to be raised as a Christian after a secret baptism.
The parents’ fight to regain their son has wider implications for Italian unification and political challenges to the Roman Catholic hierarchy.
Rylance is due to play Pope Pius IX.
The actor won this year’s Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies.” He will also star in the director’s “The BFG” this summer, and will soon begin shooting “Dunkirk” with director Christopher Nolan.
Spielberg is next set to begin production on “Ready Player One,” starring Tye Sheridan and Olivia Cooke, which is slated for a 2017 release.