The actor who will play Pope John Paul II in a television adaptation of his life has met the 84-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church in an audience at which the pope told him he was "crazy" to play him.
Polish actor Piotr Adamczyk will play the starring role in a two-part 10-million-euro (13-million-dollar) drama about the pope to hit the screens in Italy early next year.
"The Holy Father looked Piotr in the eye and said: 'You're crazy to make a film about me. What did I ever do?'" producer Pietro Valsecchi told Italy's weekly television magazine "Sorrisi e Canzoni" (Smiles and Songs).
"When I learned that the pope would receive me I was very moved, but at the same time worried, what would I have to say to him?" recalled Adamczyk.
"When his secretary said 'here, Holy Father, here's the man who will play you in the film' -- well, for the first time in my life, I was lost for words!"
"I felt like a seven-year-old child again," said the actor, adding that he was transported back in time to when he first saw the pope during John Paul II's first visit to his homeland after being elected pope.
Largely financed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset company, "Karol Wojtyla, the Story of a Man who became Pope" will be shown on Italy's Channel 5 in two 100-minutes episodes.
The film -- directed by Giacomo Battiato and also starring Italian idol Raoul Bova -- opens in 1930s Wadowice when Karol Wojtyla was just 10 years old, and ends with his election as pope on October 16, 1978.