Martin Scorsese’s movie about Jesus, which he’s been talking up a lot lately, is expected to be filmed this year. Or at least that is the plan based on comments by Scorsese to LA Times during an interview about Killers of the Flower Moon. He’ll be working on the film with frequent collaborator Kent Jones, who will co-direct.
Scorsese also adds that he’s completed the screenplay, but it doesn’t sound as if this will be a straight narrative feature. Perhaps more like a documentary or cinematic essay? It’s hard to tell. Here’s how the report describes it…
“They’re still “swimming in inspiration,” he tells me, still figuring it out. It’ll be based on Shūsaku Endō’s book “A Life of Jesus.” (Endō also wrote “Silence.”) And it’ll be set mostly in the present day, though Scorsese doesn’t want to be locked into a certain period, because he wants the film to feel timeless. He envisions the movie to run around 80 minutes, focusing on Jesus’ core teachings in a way that explores the principles but doesn’t proselytize. “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,” Scorsese says.”
Scorsese added, “Right now, ‘religion,’ you say that word, and everyone is up in arms because it’s failed in so many ways,” Scorsese continued. “But that doesn’t mean necessarily that the initial impulse was wrong. Let’s get back. Let’s just think about it. 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. That’s all I’m talking about. And I’m saying that as a person who’s going to be 81 in a couple of days. You know what I’m saying?”
Jones has worked with Scorsese multiple times, beginning as a video archivist and then as co-director or co-writer on documentaries such as A Letter to Elia and My Voyage to Italy. He made his narrative feature directing debut in 2018 with the acclaimed drama, Diane.
This project got going in May 2023 after Scorsese and his wife privately met with Pope Francis at the Vatican. Religion is a topic Scorsese has tackled before in The Last Temptation of Christ and recently with Silence.
