Jude Law Films ‘Young Pope’ In Rome

Jude Law was spotted in between takes on the set of The Young Pope in the gardens of Villa Medici in Rome, Italy, on Thursday.

Jude Law Films ‘Young Pope’

For the day on set, Law was outfitted in an all-white papal costume that included a cassock, a short shoulder cape, a sash tied at his waist and a skull cap. The actor was also wearing a pectoral cross and bright red slippers as he made his way through the gardens.

In The Young Pope, Law, 42, plays pontificate Pius XIII, born Lenny Belardo. In addition to being intensely conservative, he’s also the youngest pope ever elected and the first Italian-American.

“A complex and conflicted character, so conservative in his choices as to border on obscurantism, yet full of compassion towards the weak and poor,” reads a press release for the film. “He is a man of great power who is stubbornly resistant to the Vatican courtiers, unconcerned with the implications to his authority. During the series, Belardo will face losing those closest to him and the constant fear of being abandoned, even by his God. He is however not afraid of undertaking the millennial mission of defending that same God and the world representing Him.”

The Young Pope, directed by Paolo Sorrentino – who wrote the series with the help of Toni Grisoni, Umberto Contarello, and Stefano Rulli – will be 8-episodes long. Sorrentino, who won an Academy Award for his foreign language film The Great Beauty last year, sees The Young Pope as an exploration of both the politics and spirituality of the Catholic Church and its figurehead.

”The clear signs of God’s existence. The clear signs of God’s absence. How faith can be searched for and lost. The greatness of holiness, so great as to be unbearable when you are fighting temptations and when all you can do is to yield to them,” Sorrentino said in a statement describing the series. “The inner struggle between the huge responsibility of the Head of the Catholic Church and the miseries of the simple man that fate (or the Holy Spirit) chose as Pontiff. Finally, how to handle and manipulate power in a state whose dogma and moral imperative is the renunciation of power and selfless love towards one’s neighbor. That is what The Young Pope is about.”

In addition to Law, The Young Pope will star Diane Keaton, who will play Sister Mary, an American nun living in Vatican City. It was recently announced that James Cromwell has joined the cast as Lenny’s mentor Cardinal Michael Spencer. Silvio Orlando, Scott Shepherd, Cecile de France, Javier Camara and Ludivine Sagnier are among the cast as well.

The Young Pope, produced by Sky, HBO and Canal +, is due to air sometime in 2016.