It seems a strange world where someone like Martin Scorsese can't secure the funding for absolutely anything he likes. The reality, of course, is that he has to scratch around like everyone else, but after 20 years, his historical drama Silence is finally happening. Production companies Fábrica de Cine and SharpSword Films have stumped up the cash, with Paramount handling US distribution.
Silence was ready to go, bar the money, earlier this month, with the locations scouted and Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver and Tadanobu Asano set to star.
The screenplay, based on Shusaku Endo's novel, is by Scorsese regular Jay Cocks, and tells the story of Father Rodrigues (Garfield), a 17th century Portuguese Jesuit heading to Japan with a fellow priest (Driver) to discover whether Rodrigues’s mentor (Neeson) has left the church. Their mission is complicated by the fact that religious persecution is rife in the country, necessitating that they travel undercover with Asano as their interpreter.
“I’ve wanted to make Silence for almost two decades, and it is finally a reality,” Scorsese said. “It is heartening to have adventurous partners like Fábrica and SharpSword to work with on this picture.”
Shooting starts in Taiwan on January 30. The English translation of Endo's novel - with a foreword by Scorsese himself - is published in the UK by Peter Owen.