GREAT BEAUTY, THE 
YOUNG POPE, THE 
ONE MAN UP 
ROME -- Lenny Belardo, the tormented American pontiff played by Jude Law in Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Young Pope,” is pope no more.HBO and Sky have teamed up on “The New Pope,” a new limited series to be directed by Sorrentino that will not be a second season of “The Young Pope.” The show will be “set in the world of the modern papacy,” but HBO and Sky declined to release further details of the story.The screenplay for “The New Pope” is...
Paolo Sorrentino
Paolo
Sorrentino
Director
Sorrentino is a hotter property than ever, having written and directed hit 2016 English-language TV series “The Young Pope,” toplining Jude Law, and won the foreign-language Oscar in 2014 for “The Great Beauty.”
One of the few continental European directors who regularly work with A-list English-language actors, the 46-year-old auteur has developed a distinctive filmmaking style characterized by non-naturalistic narratives, kinetic visuals and a signature satirical streak present throughout his seven feature films and also in “Pope,” which is a rare case of a non-British European skein with a substantial U.S. fan base.
Born and raised in Naples but now based in Rome, Sorrentino brought a breath of fresh air to Italy’s static cinema scene with his first feature, “One Man Up,” which bowed in Venice in 2001. His six subsequent films have all launched from the Cannes competition section, a rare feat. Of these, “Il Divo,” a pop portrayal of Italy’s seven-time former prime minister Giulio Andreotti, impressed fest juror Sean Penn and led to their collaboration in “This Must Be the Place,” Sorrentino’s first English-language film.
He has since worked with, among others, Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel on “Youth,” and with Diane Keaton on “Pope,” her first recurring role in a TV series. and then there’s Law, of course. “Pope,” which made a splash in the U.S. on HBO, has been sold around the world.
Sorrentino’s next project is “Loro,” an Italian-language biopic about mogul Silvio Berlusconi. He’s at work as well on “The New Pope,” a sequel series of sorts to “Young Pope” that will focus on a new character.
