MOVIES
Martin Scorsese announces new movie about Jesus
Martin Scorsese met with the Pope before announcing his new movie.
Following his recent success at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where he premiered his latest movie ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’, director Martin Scorsese has announced a new project in the works, this time about Jesus.
After meeting with Pope Francis, Scorsese took part in The Global Aesthetics of the Catholic Imagination conference in Rome on Saturday, May 27, where he announced his upcoming project.
During his time in Rome this week, he had films presented at Rome’s Casa del Cinema cinematheque on Monday. On Tuesday, he hosted a masterclass at Rome’s Centro Sperimentale film school, and he will be hosting a conversation in Bologna as a guest of the Cineteca di Bologna on Friday.
Scorsese is best known for directing the movies ‘Taxi Driver’ in 1976, ‘Goodfellas’ in 1990, ‘Casino’ in 1995, and ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ in 2013.
Plans for a new film about Jesus
“I have responded to the Pope’s appeal to artists in the only way I know how: by imagining and writing a screenplay for a film about Jesus,” Scorsese said at the conference. “And I’m about to start making it.”
Also at the conference, Scorsese praised Pier Paolo Pasolini’s ‘The Gospel According to St. Matthew’, a biblical drama based on the Gospel of Matthew.
Martin Scorsese’s faith-based movies
He then spoke about his other faith-based movies, such as 1988’s ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’, which starred Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, and Barbara Hershey. The movie examines a romantic relationship between Jesus and his disciple, Mary Magdalene, and faced much criticism at the time of its release.
“It is more than just another film project for me,” he said in the midst of the controversy back in 1988.
“It was made with conviction and love and so I believe it is an affirmation of faith, not a denial. Further, I feel strongly that people everywhere will be able to identify with the human side of Jesus as well as his divine side.”
Scorsese also released ‘Silence’ in 2016, set in the 17th century, and follows Portuguese Jesuit priests as they travel to Japan to locate their missing mentor.
The movie was screened in Rome, which also marked Scorsese’s first meeting with the Pope.