Tudors star Colin O'Donoghue is making the jump to the big screen, starring opposite Anthony Hopkins in The Rite. The erstwhile Duke Philip of Bavaria will play the young seminary student under the wing of Hopkins' veteran Vatican exorcist, whose faith is tested when demonic forces come knocking.
That synopsis rather casts doubt on the idea that New Line's film, directed by Mikael Hafstrom from Michael Petroni's script, will be faithful to Matt Baglio's book The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist. The book seems to be more about dispelling myths about exorcism, and about Baglio reconnecting with his faith. But hey, you need some dramatic licence, right?
The Rite is not to be confused with another "real Exorcist": Vertigo Entertainment's mooted film based on Mark Opsasnick's The Haunted Boy. That's intricately bound up with The** Exorcist**. The Rite is just about an exorcist. The film doesn't seem quite to have a start date yet: presumably New Line need to wait for Hopkins to finish his Mr Wednesday duties on Thor before they can get going.