New Jesus movie to be filmed later this year – Hollywood Reporter

Martin Scorsese

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Martin Scorsese has finished the script for the Jesus-themed film, which he premiered in May, the director said Los Angeles Times In the story published on Monday. Scorsese said his project will be filmed later this year, and is expected to be only 80 minutes long.

“I’m trying to find a new way to make it more accessible and get rid of the negative baggage of what’s associated with organized religion,” Scorsese said. The film does not appear to have a distributor yet.

Scorsese co-wrote the new project with critic and director Kent Jones. It is based on the book by Shusaku Endo Life of Jesus – Endo also wrote SilenceWhich Scorsese adapted for the screen in 2016 with actors Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, and Liam Neeson.

“I responded to the pope’s call to artists in the only way I knew how: by imagining and writing a script for a film about Jesus,” Scorsese told the Jesuit magazine. La Civilta Cattolica (Catholic civilization) Last May.

If Scorsese’s 80-minute prediction proves correct, the new film could be his shortest film ever (Moonflower Killerswhich was released last November and is now headed into the Oscars race, clocking in at an impressive 206 minutes).

The Jesus film is mostly set in the present day and focuses on the basic tenets of Jesus’ teachings rather than specific religious doctrine.

“Right now, when you say the word ‘religion,’ everyone is up in arms because it fails in so many ways,” Scorsese said. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the initial impulse was wrong. Let’s go back. Let’s just think about it. You can reject it. But it might make a difference in the way you live your life, even rejecting it. Don’t reject it offhand. That’s all I’m talking about.” About him. And I say that as someone who turns 81 in a couple of days.

For Scorsese, the project is an accumulation of what many of his films have followed throughout his career.

“I tried to find it with Condon And The last temptation of Christuntil gangs new york, To some extent, the ways of redemption and the human condition and how we deal with the negative things within us.” “Are we respectful and then learn how to become immodest? Can we change? Will others accept this change? I think it is actually a fear of a society and culture that is corrupt because of its lack of moral and spiritual foundations. Not religion. Spirituality. It denies that.”

He continued, “It’s finding my own way in… if you want to say the term ‘religious,’ but I hate using that language, because it gets misinterpreted a lot. But there are core beliefs that I have — or try to have — and I use these films to find them.” .