Britain's Oscar-winning actor Mark Rylance is to work with top director Steven Spielberg as star of The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara.

The film, to be produced by Amblin Entertainment, will bring to the big screen the true story of Edgardo Mortara, born into a Jewish family in Italy in the mid-19th century, the entertainment website Deadline revealed.

After a servant secretly baptised him when he was sick, Edgardo was stolen from his parents by the Papal States police on the orders of the Inquisition and raised as Catholic under Pope Pius IX's personal protection.

At the time, it was illegal for a Christian child to be brought up by a member of another faith.

Edgardo was later ordained an Augustinian priest and died in Belgium in 1940. The case became hugely controversial as the boy's parents fought to get him back. It contributed to the Pope subsequently losing most of the Church's territory and helped bring about the unification of Italy.

Rylance, who won a best supporting actor Oscar for Spielberg's Bridge of Spies and who also plays the giant in The BFG, will star as Pope Pius IX. The film is expected to be released towards the end of next year.