Russell Crowe has joined the cast of supernatural thriller film The Pope’s Exorcist.

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Directed by Julius Avery (Overlord), the film will star Crowe as real-life figure Father Gabriele Amorth, a priest who acted as chief exorcist of the Vatican and performed more than 100,000 exorcisms in his lifetime.

Amorth, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 91, detailed his experiences of battling demons in two memoirs titled An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories.

“It’s been a goal of mine to work with Russell,” Avery said in a statement (via The Hollywood Reporter). “To collaborate with him on the amazing Pope’s Exorcist is truly a dream come true.”

Production is scheduled to start in Ireland in September.

Avery’s next film is Samaritan, a superhero film based on the Mythos Comics graphic novels by Bragi F. Schut, Marc Olivent and Renzo Podesta. The film’s cast includes Sylvester Stallone, Javon Walton (Euphoria), Pilou Asbæk (Game Of Thrones) and Martin Starr (Silicon Valley).

Samaritan is scheduled to be released in cinemas on August 26, 2022.

Crowe will next be seen in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder as Zeus, set to be released on July 8. He also recently finished filming Sony’s Marvel film Kraven The Hunter, where he stars alongside Aaron Taylor Johnson and Ariana DeBose.

In September last year, director Ridley Scott confirmed a sequel to Crowe’s breakout film Gladiator was being written. A release date has yet to be announced.