MADRID -- Robert de Niro, sporting flowing gray locks and a white-streaked beard, posed for photographs on Thursday in Madrid where filming starts this week on a movie in which he plays a priest in the Spanish inquisition, reported Reuters.

Also starring Harvey Keitel and Kathy Bates, ***The Bridge of San Luis Rey*** -- set in 18th century colonial Peru during the Spanish inquisition -- will be filmed in the southern city of Malaga as well as the Spanish capital. Work was due to start on Friday.

De Niro also played a priest in the 1986 movie ***The Mission*** with Jeremy Irons and in ***Sleepers*** in 1996. The Spanish, French and British co-produced movie will be directed by Mary McGuckian and is based on Thornton Wilder's 1927 Pulitzer prize-winning novel.