After working together on Gangs of New York, Deadline are reporting that Liam Neeson (Taken, A Million Ways to Die in the West) and Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street, Hugo) will reunite for the director’s next film Silence.
The movie is an adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s novel about Jesuits attempting to spread Christianity in 17th century Japan, and has been one of Scorsese’s pet projects for over 20 years. The cast also includes Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Never Let Me Go) as Father Rodrigues, and Ken Watanabe (Godzilla, Batman Begins) and Adam Driver (Girls, Inside Llewyn Davis) in yet-to-be-announced roles. Read a more detailed description of the plot below:
Young Portuguese Jesuit Sebastião Rodrigues (Garfield) is sent to Japan to succor the local Church and investigate reports that his mentor, Fr. Cristóvão Ferreira, has committed apostasy. (Ferreira is a historical figure, who apostatized after torture and later married a Japanese woman and wrote a treatise against Christianity.)
Fr. Rodrigues and his companion Fr. Francisco Garrpe arrive in Japan in 1638. There they find the local Christian population driven underground. Security officials force suspected Christians to trample on fumie, which are crudely carved images of Christ. Those who refuse are imprisoned and killed. The novel relates the trials of the Christians and increasing hardship suffered by Rodrigues, as more is learnt about the circumstances of Ferreira’s apostasy.
Going by that synopsis, you’d expect Neeson to play the disgraced mentor Fr. Cristóvão Ferreira. It all sounds a bit ‘Heart of Darkness,’ and, going by Scorsese’s recent form, is very exciting.
Silence is currently scheduled for a 2015 release.
Originally published February 1, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
