(ZENIT News / Rome, 12.07.2025).- A new film project underway in Rome is drawing together an unexpected blend of Hollywood presence, Vatican scholarship and centuries-old archaeological intrigue. At the heart of it stands Chris Pratt, who has taken on the task of guiding viewers through one of the most significant and least accessible sites in Christian history: the Vatican Necropolis and the tomb of the Apostle Peter.
The production, a collaboration between Vatican Media, the Fabbrica di San Pietro and AF Films, is being crafted with an eye toward a milestone year. Its release is slated for 2026, when the Church marks four centuries since the completion and dedication of the current St. Peter’s Basilica. The anniversary offers a natural frame for a project that seeks not only to narrate history but to interpret the meaning of a site that has shaped Christian imagination for nearly two millennia.
Pratt’s involvement adds a global, cinematic dimension to a story that usually remains locked behind archaeological reports and limited-access tours. Speaking to Vatican News, he described his participation as an extraordinary privilege, expressing gratitude for the level of trust and access granted to him. For the actor, the project is less about spectacle and more about illuminating the foundations of a faith tradition whose origins are tied to a fisherman executed during the reign of Nero.
The film’s director, Paula Ortiz of Spain, brings to the effort a style known for marrying visual poetry with historical intuition. She is working from a script by Andrea Tornielli, with the support of veteran Vatican conservator Pietro Zander. Their goal is to allow viewers to descend—figuratively and literally—beneath the marble grandeur of St. Peter’s and into the layered history of the Vatican Hill, where Roman necropolises once sprawled before Constantine reshaped the landscape to build the first basilica.
That transformation of the hill, which required leveling the terrain and constructing over Peter’s burial place, became one of the earliest architectural testimonies to the apostle’s enduring significance. From the fourth century onward, Christians flocked to the site, convinced that the fisherman’s humble grave had become the anchor point of the Church’s memory. Many wanted to be buried near him, creating a complex network of tombs and mausoleums that remained hidden under centuries of construction.
The documentary’s narrative arc traces this buried world’s rediscovery, beginning with the secret excavations authorized by Pope Pius XII in 1940. Ten years later, the Vatican officially announced the location of what it held to be Peter’s tomb. Subsequent studies and findings eventually led Pope Paul VI, in 1968, to declare that the remains brought to light could be confidently considered those of the apostle himself—fragments small in quantity yet immense in symbolic weight.
By blending historical evidence, archaeological testimony and cinematic storytelling, the documentary aims to bring to life a journey that until now has been accessible only to specialists or small groups of pilgrims. The production promises exclusive images from within the necropolis, revealing the tight passageways, ancient inscriptions and early Christian markers that have shaped scholarly debates for decades.
As filming continues beneath the basilica’s soaring dome, the project stands poised to offer something rare: a visual narrative capable of bridging faith and history without reducing either. With Pratt guiding the way, the story of Peter—disciple, martyr, and foundational figure—may reach audiences who never imagined themselves descending into the Vatican’s hidden depths.
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