In Lithuania, director says TV movie hopes to capture essence of JPII

Published: 2005-09-15

VILNIUS, Lithuania (CNS) -- In the lobby of the Lithuanian Film Studio stood a group of fully dressed cardinals, some of them complaining in Russian about the prolonged wait. In another area, Mehmet Ali Agca -- not the real one -- sat in a mock prison cell, where he was about to be filmed meeting with the pope he tried to assassinate. Such scenes could be encountered all around Vilnius for almost a month until Sept. 13, when Five Mile River Films Ltd. finished shooting major scenes of the new TV movie, "Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II," for broadcast on ABC. The filming was to be completed in Rome, and a 90-minute-long movie was scheduled to reach the international market by mid-November. "Having only 90 minutes to tell the story of such a huge character in history, we had to take a point of view, which is pope as a human being," said Italian executive producer Lorenzo Minoli.

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