New Pope 2013: Who Would Be the Perfect Actor to Portray Pope Francis – Woody Allen, Jonathan Pryce or Jeffrey Tambor? (PHOTOS & VIDEOS)

Since Pope Francis is the hottest newsmaker for now following his surprise election as pontiff of the 1.2-billion member Roman Catholic Church, it would not be unexpected that some movie producers would think soon of making a bio-epic about the Argentinean cleric.

It may not necessarily be a life story, although Jorge Mario Bergoglio's earthly existence appears to have all the dramatic elements needed, beginning from the migration of his parents from Italy to Argentina, to his surgery which resulted in the future pope having only one lung, to a heartache that caused him to become a priest, his professional life as a chemist, and of course his colourful but simple life as a Jesuit bishop, cardinal and now pope.

Or his character could be integrated into stories about Argentina such as the life of its current president, Cristina Fernandez Kirschner, or the Falklands crisis.

Casting directors looking for a look-a-like for Pope Francis could probably check on three mature actors who seem to perfectly fit for the role in terms of facial similarity. These are comedian Woody Allen, stage actor Jonathan Pryce and voice actor Jeffrey Tambor.

Mr Allen is a screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright and musician who started as a comedy writer in the 1950s. He has starred in several hit movies such as Annie Hall in 1977, Manhattan in 1979, Hannah and Her Sisters in 1986 and Midnight in Paris in 2011.

The 77-year-old actor's last film, released in 2012, was To Rome with Love, while his next movie is Blue Jasmine and he is set to star in a musical in a stage adaptation of Bullets Over Broadway in 2013.

Mr Pryce is a Welsh film and stage actor who has seen in major movie productions such as Evita, Tomorrow Never Dies, Pirates of the Caribbean and The New World. He played the Engineer roles in the 1991 West End production of the musical Miss Saigon for which he won his second Tony Award.

Mr Tambor is known for his roles such as Hank Kingsley on The Larry Sanders Show and George Bluth Sr and Oscar Bluth on Arrested Development. The 68-year-old actor got four Emmy nominations for this Larry Sanders character and is remembered for the famous phrase, "Hey Now!"

He is the voice of King Neptune in The Spongebob SquarePants Movie shown in 2004 and will be seen in season 4 of the comedy show Arrested Development in May.

Movie companies have also seized the moment by riding on the conclave results and promoting their previous religion-themed movies such as The Da Vinci Code

Angels & Demons

and We Have a Pope

which is the story of a cardinal who shirks away from the duty of being pope, and is the opposite of what happened on March 13 when Cardinal Bergoglio agreed to become Pope Francis.