Mark Rylance has been chosen to star in yet another Steven Spielberg movie, The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara.

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The film will be the actor’s third major role in a Spielberg film since 2015.

Rylance had an Oscar-winning performance in Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies last year, and will star in the director’s adaptation of The BFG this year.

The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara tells the story of Edgardo Mortara, a six-year-old Jewish boy from 19th century Italy who was taken from his parents by the police and raised as a Catholic.

Rylance will star as Pope Pius IX, who raised Mortara under his protection and refused to return him to his parents.

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Spielberg plans to tackle this new film after he finishes his current project, directing Warner Bros sci-fi blockbuster Player One.

Another Spielberg favourite, scriptwriter Tony Kushner, has written the screenplay for The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, based on the David Kertzer novel of the same name.

Kushner also wrote the scripts for Spielberg movies Lincoln and Munich, and has been working on this latest project since 2008.

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The film is expected to shoot in early 2017.

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