The Young Pope

The Young Pope
Promotional poster
Genre	Drama
Created by	Paolo Sorrentino
Written by	Paolo Sorrentino Stefano Rulli Tony Grisoni Umberto Contarello
Directed by	Paolo Sorrentino
Starring	Jude Law Diane Keaton Silvio Orlando Javier Cámara Scott Shepherd Cécile de France Ludivine Sagnier Toni Bertorelli James Cromwell
Theme music composer	Timothy McKenzie Bob Dylan Jimi Hendrix
Opening theme	"Watchtower" (Instrumental) prod. by Labrinth
Composer(s)	Lele Marchitelli
Country of origin	Italy Spain France
Original language(s)	English Italian
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Lorenzo Mieli Mario Gianani Viola Prestieri Paolo Sorrentino Caroline Benjo Carole Scotta Simon Arnal Jaume Roures Javier Méndez Tony Grisoni John Lyons Ron Bozman (pilot) Nils Hartmann Sonia Rovai Roberto Amoroso
Producer(s)	Jude Law Ben Jackson
Location(s)	Rome Venice New York City Los Angeles South Africa
Cinematography	Luca Bigazzi
Editor(s)	Cristiano Travaglioli
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	46–60 minutes
Production company(s)	Wildside Haut et Court TV Mediapro Sky Atlantic Home Box Office Canal+
Distributor	FremantleMedia
Release
Original network	Sky Atlantic HBO Canal+
Picture format	2160p (UHD) 1080i (HDTV)
Original release	21 October 2016 (2016-10-21) – present

1080i (HDTV)

The Young Pope is an English-language Italian drama television series created and directed by Paolo Sorrentino for Sky Atlantic, HBO, and Canal+. The series stars Jude Law and Diane Keaton.

The world premiere of The Young Pope was on 3 September 2016, at the 73rd Venice Film Festival, where the first two episodes were screened out of competition. It was the first time in the history of the festival that a TV series was a part of the program. The series premiered on TV on 21 October 2016 on Sky Atlantic in Italy. On 20 October 2016, Wildside producer Lorenzo Mieli announced that a second season of the series was in development.

The Young Pope, the first TV series by Paolo Sorrentino, was produced by Fausto Brizzi, Lorenzo Mieli and Mario Gianani, together with the French company Haut et Court TV and the Spanish company Mediapro. The project was financed by Sky, Canal+ and HBO, which contributed 40 million euros, with part of the money coming from the European Regional Development Fund. Production of the first 10 episodes of the first season took three years between 2014 and 2016.

The script was written by Sorrentino, Stefano Rulli, Tony Grisoni and Umberto Contarello. The cast, announced between July and August 2015, includes Jude Law as the young pope; Diane Keaton as Sister Mary; James Cromwell, Silvio Orlando, Scott Shepherd, Javier Cámara and Toni Bertorelli. It also includes Cécile de France, Ludivine Sagnier, Guy Boyd, Andre Gregory, Sebastian Roché, Marcello Romolo, Ignazio Oliva, Vladimir Bibic, Daniel Vivian and Nadie Kammalaweera. The main character is almost always seen only from the waist up, to give the impression that he might be soaring. Sorrentino said he inherited this technique from Spike Lee.