The makers of hit movie The Two Popes couldn’t film in the Sistine Chapel... so they built their own.
Many confrontations between Sir Anthony Hopkins’ Benedict XVI and Jonathan Pryce’s Pope Francis take place within the frescoed walls of the Vatican’s renaissance jewel.
But a ban on all narrative filming there meant Netflix had to turn a Rome studio into Michelangelo’s masterpiece in just 10 weeks.
They used a remarkable “tattoo” technique that allows plaster to suck up dyes from photographic images.
Designer Mark Tildesley said: “Ours is actually two inches bigger than the original so we can technically say that we made the bigger Sistine Chapel.”
Fernando Meirelles directed The Two Popes, which was released last month.
In the film, Pope Benedict XVI forms a surprising friendship with the future Pope Francis.
The film, inspired by true events, has already received favourable reviews by critics and audiences.
