For years and years Martin Scorsese has weathered collapsing financing and saber-rattling about lawsuits to keep the rights to Shusaku Endo’s novel Silence and eventually make it his next pictures. Interestingly, it sound like he may finally accomplish that goal, and the news comes because Scorsese staged a reading for a completely different project- the long-hoped-for The Irishman.
Said script reading must have been a crime fan’s wet dream as the director oversaw the reading at the Tribeca Film Center, where Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino come together to give the script –based on on I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt– a test drive. Investigation into what the reading meant in terms of development revealed that it was Marty’s way of keeping the project active and seeing how the script is working, apparently while he attempts to get Silence greenlighted.
While my enlightened film nerd brain certainly wants the (apparently silent film?) project crammed with classic Scorsese ideas as a Jesuit priest investigating faith and self-doubt while traveling to Japan, my more “fuck yeah bro!” brain definitely wants the gangster movie with DeNiro, Pesci, and Pacino directed by the guy who fucking made Goodfellas and Casino and stuff.
It’s an internal dilemma to be sure. Just as long as the eyebrows is making movies…
Source | Deadline