Ridley Scott films TV series on the Vatican

Rome: Hollywood director Ridley Scott has filmed a TV series ‘The Vatican’ in Rome, starring Bruno Ganz as the fictional present-day Pope Sixtus VI.

Scott, who last filmed in Rome the blockbuster ‘Gladiator’, paid the city of Rome 50,000 euros a day to film in the area around St. Peter`s Square, the Messaggero daily reported. A crowd of tourists looked on as Scott and his crew filmed in Pius XII Square at the top of the main road that leads to St. Peter`s Square. ‘The Vatican’ movie`s central character is a New York archbishop, Cardinal Thomas Duffy, played by Kyle Chandler. The cast also includes Anna Friel as Cardinal Duffy`s sister, and singer Rebecca Ferguson. Other scenes in Scott`s thriller are being shot outside Rome`s top appeals court on the banks of the Tiber and in the world-famous Via Veneto, immortalised in Federico Fellini`s iconic film ‘La Dolce Vita’. However, Scott was reportedly denied permission to film inside the Vatican walls. IANS