Roland Joffe, the director of the classic 1980′s film “The Mission” (a beautiful movie that I highly recommend), is planning to direct a film on the life of St. Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei:

The film, titled “There Be Dragons,” is set during the Spanish Civil War and involves a young journalist’s discovery of his father’s connection with Escrivá during that brutal period in Spain’s history.

Joffe had initially turned down the offer to direct the film but reconsidered after viewing a video of Escrivá in conversation with a Jewish girl who wanted to convert to Catholicism.

Intrigued by Escrivá’s faith, his belief that everyone is called to holiness and that a person’s ordinary work is the path to sanctity, Joffe said, “I was very interested in the idea of embarking on a piece of work that took religion seriously on its own terms and didn’t play a game where one approached religion denying its validity.”

Joffe described himself as a “wobbly agnostic” to the NY Times, but added that “I do believe that rigid atheism is a rather intellectually short-sighted position.”

The film project is produced and financed in part by Opus Dei members and has enlisted an Opus Dei priest to consult on the set.

Rev. John Wauck, a professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, is the on-set adviser, but Joffe has said that he has been given complete creative control in directing the film.

I have very little confidence in anything produced by Hollywood, but based on this report I am hopeful that this movie will be an accurate and moving depiction of the life of this saint.