Finally? Could it actually be real this time? Martin Scorsese‘s long-developing dream project “Silence” has taken forever to come to fruition, seemingly annually promised without much happening. Last spring, the movie got backing from Cecchi Gori Pictures with promises it would be the first thing they produced, but then Scorsese went and made “The Wolf Of Wall Street” and lawsuits flew back and forth between the company and the filmmaker. And then once again in January, it was said “Silence” would be next, and it actually seems like it’s true this time.
The unlikely company Emmett/Furla Films — known for their usually B-grade genre stuff like “Broken City,” “Alex Cross,” “End Of Watch” and a bunch of 50 Cent movies — having the financing for the movie, in what is the first of a two-picture deal with Scorsese. Even more, the movie has a start date of July 2014, with shooting to take place in Taiwan, and Scorsese set to head into pre-production once he’s done on ‘Wolf.’ So fingers triple-crossed this time, but it really and truly does seem like this will go. So what’s it all about?
It’s an adaptation of Shusaku Endo‘s book about two 17th century Jesuit priests who face violence and persecution when they travel to Japan to locate their mentor and to spread the gospel of Christianity. At one time, Daniel Day-Lewis, Benicio Del Toro and Gael Garcia Bernal were being rounded up to star, but that never panned out, and it’s not clear if they’ll return or if Scorsese will re-cast. The script was penned by Jay Cocks (“The Age of Innocence,” “The Gangs of New York“) and foreign rights will be up for grabs at Cannes, where Scorsese may appear.
It’s not exactly the most box office-friendly movie in the world, so perhaps we’ll get word of a cast before Cannes to help spur buyers? We shall see, but we’re mostly just glad it’s happening at all; hopefully there will be no more delays on this one.
