In 1987, Steven Spielberg offered Mark Rylance a part in his new movie, Empire of the Sun. The actor refused. Spielberg offered him a larger part. Rylance, after consulting the I Ching, again turned him down, opting for a season at the RSC.
Nearly 30 years on, the pair are making up for lost time. Following the success of Bridge of Spies, for which Rylance won the best supporting actor Oscar in February, their stop-motion take on The BFG is due for release this July. On Tuesday, a new collaboration was announced: The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, an 1850s-set tale of Pope Pius IX’s protection of a young Jewish boy from Bologna who was snatched and raised Catholic following an emergency baptism when he fell ill as an infant.
Rylance will play the Pope, who was the longest-serving elected pontiff, as well as the first to be photographed. His abrupt mood swings have since been ascribed to epilepsy.
The script will be written by Tony Kushner, the Angels in America-playwright, who previously worked with Spielberg on Lincoln and Munich. He will be adapting the 1997 novel about the episode by Pulitzer prize-winner David Kertzer. The movie is being positioned for an awards run in early 2018, with shooting scheduled to start at the beginning of next year for an autumn 2017 release.
And on Wednesday, a further pair-up was revealed: Ready Player One, which will likely shoot towards the end of this year. Based on a novel by Ernest Cline, it is set in a virtual world called OASIS; the story follows a teenager (played by Tye Sheridan) who finds himself competing in a treasure hunt against ruthless foes.
Olivia Cooke, Simon Pegg and Ben Mendelsohn co-star; Rylance is set to play OASIS creator James Donovan Halliday, reportedly “an enigmatic figure with shades of Howard Hughes and Steve Jobs”.
