Brad Pitt, SJ

Yep, the Society of Jesus gets all the good ones...Over at "In All Things," the blog of America magazine, the flagship Jesuit weekly, Father Jim Martin--an author of no minor celebrity himself, reports that Brad Pitt has been cast as Father Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit scientist, in the film version of Mary Doria Russell's "The Sparrow."

The novel, as Father Martin notes, is about "a group of Jesuit scientists and lay colleagues who discover life on far-off planet with some tragic results."

Of course, Martin also asks the central theological question Pitt--and viewers--will face in this movie: "Is he handsome enough to play a Jesuit priest?"

Meanwhile, I heard Scorsese is filming another remarkable saga of Jesuits, Shusaku Endo's "Silence." That'll be a real challenge.