After a long and muddled pre-production history with several changes of director and lead actress, a start date has finally been set for Die Päpstin (Pope Joan), the big-screen adaptation of the bestselling Donna Cross novel of the same name. German director and former professional football player Sönke Wortmann (Das Wunder von Bern / The Miracle of Bern) is now at the helm of medieval epic, with rising German star Johanna Wokalek (Barfuss / Barefoot) taking on the title role.

 

The project had initially been in the hands of director Volker Schlöndorff (Der neunte Tag / The Ninth Day) with star actress Franka Potente (Elementarteilchen / Atomised) cast in the lead role. The story recounts how the young German-English girl Johanna von Ingelheim rises through the ecclesiastical ranks disguised as a male scholar. She is finally crowned successor of Saint Peter in 853. The Vatican has always maintained that the story is a fabrication.

 

Shooting on the film is now scheduled to start in August for a release sometime in 2009.