Why Netflix spent $5 million to recreate the Sistine Chapel and destroyed it
For the 2019 Netflix film The Two Popes, which starred Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, the streaming platform and production house built an inch-perfect replica of the Sistine Chapel. However, as soon as shooting was complete, the building was demolished.
The Vatican are notorious for being tricky customers for production companies to deal with, which is why Netflix built their own version of the Sistine Chapel. If the Vatican does allow a crew to film inside the city, which is a rarity, they are strict about how long you can film for, and ultimately, Netflix were left with no choice but to recreate the Sistine Chapel themselves.
Once they finished the project, even though they’d gone to great expense to build the Sistine Chapel, there was no place to keep it. Instead, the replica building was brutally demolished. Anthony McCarten, who wrote the film, has now described the decision as a “crime”.
He told Artnet News: “Disastrously, I watched them wreck it after we finished shooting and I thought, ‘Oh God, I would love to take the end panel’ which was a complete, to-scale replica of the Last Judgment rendered in beautiful, vivid colors. I thought, ‘What a crime.’”
McCarten added: “The film industry is horrible like that. We build grand, grand pieces of history and, then, we finish shooting and walk off set, get in our cars and, as we’re leaving, we hear the sound of sledgehammers. The work has been so carefully put together and it’s rubble within an hour. You just have to avert your eyes; it’s too distressing.”
The demolition raises questions about what production companies should do with sets like this one and if it could have been opened as a museum for the public to view.
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.