Scorsese's long-awaited “Silence” novel adaptation to film in 2014

PanARMENIAN.Net - Martin Scorsese's long-awaited dream of adapting Shusaku Endo's 1967 novel "Silence" into a film finally comes true. Emmett/Furla Films is on board the project to finance the novel-adapted film, which is planned to shoot in Taiwan in July 2014. The Award-winning filmmaker will also serve as the writer alongside Jay Cocks.

The novel, which is titled "Chinmoku" in Japanese, centers on 17th century Jesuits who puts their lives at risk to spread Christianity in Japan. However, it is then revealed that Christianity has been forced underground there by persecution and torture of admitted believers. The title itself refers to God's silence during the toughest times experienced by the hidden Christians.

Scorsese has voiced his interest in making "Silence" since 1991 and, at that time, Benicio del Toro and Daniel Day-Lewis were attached to star. In an interview with Deadline, he told the reasons why he was keen to work on the adaptation. "Questions, answers, loss of the answer again and more questions, and this is what really interests me," he confessed.

He added, " 'Silence' is just something that I'm drawn to in that way. It's been an obsession, it has to be done and now is the time to do it. It's a strong, wonderful true story, a thriller in a way, but it deals with those questions."

The film will be executive produced by Niels Juul. Scorsese will start focusing on his new project after completing "The Wolf of Wall Street", which stars Leonardo DiCaprio.