Trailer: ‘The Two Popes’ finds Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce in the world’s most intimate tête-à-tête

Poignant and bracingly relevant, The Two Popes, the ‘inspired by’ story of Pope Benedict and Cardinal Bergoglio is also a surprisingly funny and wry look at the meaning and responsibility of power at the highest level and finds two actors at the top of their game and was an audience favorite at this season’s fall festivals.

From Fernando Meirelles, the Academy Award-nominated director of City of God, and three-time Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour), comes an intimate story of one of the most dramatic transitions of power in the last 2,000 years. Frustrated with the direction of the church, Cardinal Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) requests permission to retire in 2012 from Pope Benedict (Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins, Silence of the Lambs).

Review: Immersive, sharp and funny, ‘The Two Popes’ is nothing short of a miracle

Instead, facing scandal and self-doubt, the introspective Pope Benedict summons his harshest critic and future successor to Rome to reveal a secret that would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church. Behind Vatican walls, a struggle commences between both tradition and progress, guilt and forgiveness, as these two very different men confront elements from their pasts in order to find common ground and forge a future for a billion followers around the world.

Netflix will release The Two Popes in select theaters on November 27th and then stream globally on December 20th.