Martin Scorsese Next Movie: Paramount Acquires Dream Project 'Silence' From Director [VIDEO]
Paramount Pictures is reportedly in talks to acquire U.S. distribution rights to director Martin Scorsese's Silence, and the tentative plan is to release the film November 2015.
The news was reported from Deadline on Monday. Silence is one of the pictures on Scorsese's long list of dream projects, an adaptation of the Shusako Endo novel that Scorsese has reportedly longed to make for more than a decade. The project finally came together when Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films principals Randall Emmett and George Furla committed the production financing, with Corsan Entertainment co-financing. Shooting is supposed to go underway in Taiwan.
The film takes place in the 17th century, where two Jesuit priests face violence and persecution when they travel to Japan to locate their mentor and to spread Christianity. The script is by Scorsese's Gangs Of New York writer Jay Cocks, and the filmmaker has pulled together a cast including Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield, Ken Watanabe and Adam Driver.
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Garfield will play Father Rodrigues, who travels to Japan with a fellow priest amid rumors that Rodrigues' mentor has abandoned the Church and Watanabe is playing his interpreter. The film will also feature predominantly Japanese dialogue with subtitles.
Emmett and Furla are producing with Emma Tillinger Koskoff and Irwin Winkler. Deadline adds that Paramount seems a logical landing place for Silence. While Red Granite funded The Wolf Of Wall Street, Paramount released the film, which was nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture. The studio also distributed Shutter Island and Hugo.
Garfield was last seen in this year's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 while Driver will be seen in What If this fall and next year in Star Wars: Episode VII.
