If there’s one thing that’s certain about the prolific career of Martin Scorsese, he’s never shied from swinging for the fences, and his latest undertaking is no exception. After confirming his next project would center around none other than Jesus Christ himself last May, the filmmaker has now shared how he intends to subvert viewers’ perceptions of religion.
In a recent profile for the Los Angeles Times, Scorsese shared his vision for the movie, which is set to begin shooting later this year. “I’m trying to find a new way to make it more accessible and take away the negative onus of what has been associated with organized religion,” he said.
Scorsese added that he wants to get back to the “initial impulse” behind the institution. “Right now, ‘religion,’ you say that word and everyone is up in arms because it’s failed in so many ways,” he said. “You may reject it. But it might make a difference in how you live your life — even in rejecting it. Don’t dismiss it offhand.”
According to Variety, the initial inspiration for the project came to Scorsese while attending a conference with his wife in Italy titled “The Global Aesthetics of the Catholic Imagination.” The post-Cannes trip included a meeting with Pope Francis. “I have responded to the Pope’s appeal to artists in the only way I know how: by imagining and writing a screenplay for a film about Jesus,” he announced at the time.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the screenplay is now complete and was co-written by Scorsese and Kent Jones. Based on Shūsaku Endō’s book A Life of Jesus, shooting for the film will take place later this year. It’s expected to have a runtime of about 80 minutes – which is something of an anomaly for Scorsese’s films these days — and will largely be set in the present day.
Of course, the movie won’t be Scorsese’s first about Jesus Christ. He helmed the controversial 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. Meanwhile, his 2016 film Silence centered around the persecution of Christians in Japan.
Scorsese’s latest project, Killers of the Flower Moon, is set for streaming release on Apple TV+ on January 12th.