Sister Act: What you never knew about the 1992 movie

HALLELUJAH! Your prayers have been answered and there’s a third Sister Act movie in the works. To celebrate, here’s what you never knew about the 1992 original.

YOUR prayers have been answered ... There’s another Sister Act movie in the works.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, writers are currently penning a third instalment in the movie franchise which started in 1992.

There’s no word yet if Whoopi Goldberg will appear in the upcoming flick, but with a bit of divine intervention she’ll hopefully reprise her role as Deloris Van Cartier.

To celebrate the potential third movie, we’ve tracked down some fun known facts about Sister Act and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit:

Leading lady: Whoopi Goldberg only landed the lead role after Bette Midler turned it down, and boy does she regret it.

“Oh my God, it’s all so tragic,” said Midler to Metro about some of the famous roles she’s passed on.

“There was Sister Act, which was written for me, but I said: ‘My fans don’t want to see me in a wimple.’

“I don’t know where I got that from. Why would I say such a thing? So Whoopi did it instead and, of course, she made a fortune. Then she went on and did Sister Act 2.”

Name change: The original name of the lead character was meant to be Terri Van Cartier, but the original screenplay writer, Paul Rudnick, was asked to change it when Bette Midler passed on the film.

“Whoopi Goldberg was suddenly eager to play the part of Terri, although she asked that the character’s name be changed to Deloris, because, I was told, she’d always wanted to play someone named Deloris,” revealed Rudnick in The New Yorker.

Research: When he was writing the screenplay, Rudnick spent a few days living in a convent in Connecticut, which he chose for a very particular reason.

“I’d read that this convent was the home of the actress Dolores Hart, who ... had played opposite Elvis Presley in King Creole,” wrote Rudnick.

“Hart had left Hollywood to become a nun, taking her final vows in 1970 ... She’d done something unheard of for an American: she’d been offered the life of a celebrity and, quietly and politely, she’d said no.”

Dubbed: Remember the shy red-headed nun in the film called Sister Mary Robert?

She had some voice on her didn’t she? Actually, no, she didn’t.

The character was played by Wendy Makkena but it was voice actress Andrea Robinson who actually did all of the singing parts for the role.

Not happy:Sister Act may have been a huge hit, but it’s fair to say Whoopi Goldberg doesn’t have fond memories of making the movie.

The star had several creative differences with Disney and when the film was released she refused to do interviews to promote it.

“There was tenseness that I noticed,” said Kathy Najimy (who played Sister Mary Patrick) to the New York Daily News.

“You could tell she was not the most happy she has ever been in her life. But there was no tenseness in front of us. That was all between her and Disney.”

Character inspiration: Kathy Najimy admitted in a 1992 interview that before filming started, she had absolutely no idea how she was going to play the role of a cheery nun.

But that all changed when she caught an episode of Entertainment Tonight.

“I turn on the TV. It’s something with me and Sally Field running around (from a movie called Soapdish), and they come back to Mary Hart (who co-hosted ET from 1982 — 2011) and she went, ‘That Sally Field, ya gotta love her!’

“And I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s my nun!’”