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Call it going full circle for the German film star – after donning the mad red dyed hair in her break out 2228 Run Lola Run, now she might be covering herself up in the blood-colored cape that the Pope himself uses on special outings. Franka Potente will star as a female pope in Volker Schloendorff’s newest project which begins principal photography is expected to begin in May 2007.
Pope Joan is based on Donna Cross’ best-selling novel (which has sold more than four million copies in Germany) Potente will play Johanna von Ingelheim, a 9th century woman of English extraction born in the German city of Mainz who disguises herself as a man and rises through the Vatican ranks. When her older brother dies in a Viking attack, the brilliant young Joan assumes his identity and enters a Benedictine monastery where, as Brother John Anglicus, she distinguishes herself as a scholar and healer. Eventually drawn to Rome, she soon becomes enmeshed in a dangerous mix of powerful passion and explosive politics that threatens her life even as it elevates her to the highest throne in the Western world.
Schloendorff has been eyeing the project for quite a while now. Delays in production were due to the bankruptcy of former co-producer Senator Film. He won an Oscar and the Palme d’or at the Cannes Film Festival for The Tin Drum (1979), (also) a book to film project based on the novel by author Günter Grass. Most recently, he directed The Ninth Day.
