After dancing around a Japanese period piece for over a decade, Martin Scorsese has it at the top of his to-do list.
Martin Scorsese to Direct Silence
According to Production Weekly,
after pushing the project in order to film The Departed first, Martin Scorsese is aiming to make his next project Silence, an adaptation of the novel by Japanese writer Shusaku Endo.
This project has been on Scorsese's mind for a while now -- he wrote the first draft of the screenplay with Jack Cocks a decade ago.
Silence is set in sixteenth century Japan, where Portuguese missionaries must contend with traders from rival European nations and the persecution of Christians by Japanese feudal lords. The feudal lords want to drive Christianity out of Japan, and try to do so by torturing priests into apostasy, denying their faith.
This is done symbolically by stepping on a “fumie,” a Christian image, like a picture of Mary or a crucifix. Two Portuguese priests, Sebastian Rodrigues and Francis Garrpe, make a dangerous journey to Japan, both to locate and comfort Japanese converts, and to discover the truth about a supposed apostate priest, Ferreira.
Scorsese will like move forward with this project unless, well, something better or more time sensitive pops up.
Martin Scorsese 
Add to Heffee!
