Rome, Italy, Sep 28, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Two major American networks had the same idea at about the same time—both decided to produce a film about the life of Pope John Paul II. But, as Alan Riding of the New York Times reports, ABC and CBS are coming at the story in different ways.
Both films will tell the story largely as a flashback: ABC opens with John Paul praying at the Western Wall during a visit to Jerusalem in 2000; CBS looks backward and forward from the attempt on his life in 1981.
ABC's "Have No Fear: The Life of John Paul II" will run two hours. ABC recently completed shooting, and CBS is working through mid-October
A young-looking 42-year-old, the British actor Cary Elwes, plays Karol Wojtyla until his election as pope. Voight covers the 26-year papacy. Christopher Lee appears as Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, Poland's hard-line anti-Communist patriarch, and Ben Gazzara is Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, the Vatican's longtime secretary of state.