The award-winning star of “Amadeus” is scheduled to play the celebrated “blessed,” according to news reports:

The first film about Blessed John Henry Newman is in the works.

Italian director and screenwriter Liana Marabini, who specialises in directing films about the Church, will begin to shoot The Unseen World, a biopic about Newman, in the coming weeks, Italian television Rai reported today.

Filming will take place in Rome, Littlemore, Oscott, near Birmingham, and Oxford.

F. Murray Abraham, the actor best known for his role as Salieri in Milos Foreman’s Amadeus, is to play the English cardinal beatified by Pope Benedict during his visit to Britain in September. Mr Abraham, who was raised in Texas by an Assyrian Christian father and an Italian-American mother, won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Amadeus in 1985.

Nastassja Kinski, the daughter of actor Klaus Kinski and star of films by Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders and Francis Ford Coppola, also features in the film.

According to the report, Marabini hopes the title “The Unseen World” reflects the metaphysical relationship between God and man referred to in Newman’s writing.

The film will deal with Newman’s conversion and spiritual growth against the backdrop of Victorian England. It will also deal with the intense friendship between Newman and fellow Oratorian Ambrose St John.