Martin Scorsese to shoot Japanese novel “Silence” in Taiwan

PanARMENIAN.Net - Martin Scorsese plans to shoot his new movie “Silence” in Taiwan rather than in Japan, after seeing what Taiwanese-American director Ang Lee was able to accomplish there with Oscar-winner “Life of Pi.” In fact, with more and more Hollywood films shooting parts of their films in Taipei and other scenic spots around the island nation, some people have taken to calling the evolving cinema world of Taiwan as “Tollywood,” TheWrap said.

Although the Scorsese film is based on an obscure 1966 Japanese novel that tells the story of a hapless Jesuit missionary trying in vain to introduce Christianity to Buddhist and Shinto Japan in the 1600s, Scorsese has already scouted locations in Taiwan after getting a welcoming greenlight from Lee.

In February of 2014, Scorsese and a small production team visited Taiwan on an eight-day trip to scout locations for the movie. They visited Taipei, Taichung and Hualien in their search for potential film locations for the movie, which is based on a Japanese novel set in Japan.

Scorsese feels the Taiwan location will be less stressful and more colorful than shooting the period piece in the real Japan of today, since Taiwan still contains architecture and village scenes from the Japanese Colonial Period (1895-1945) when Japan ruled the island with a colonial mindset.

Taipei Film Commission director Jennifer Jao told local media that Scorsese “likes Taiwan very much” and plans to be back on location in the summer to shoot the film.

According to media reports, actors signed up to be in the film include Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield, Ken Watanabe and Adam Driver.

While “Silence” will be shot in Taiwan, the movie will be released as a Japanese-language film with Japanese dialog dubbed in post-production, according to sources.

Garfield and Watanabe have already been cast in the movie, the sources said.

Scorsese went to Cannes last year to try to sell “Silence” — a personal pet project still in development after 24 years of gestation — to foreign buyers, and he’s ready to roll on the project he started in 1989.

Taipei City and the surrounding countryside will serve as the principal photography locations and Taiwanese film officials, already happy with the global publicity that native son Lee’s “Life of Pi” brought in, are more than welcoming to Scorcese’s plans, according to local media here.