This will probably Joel Osteen’s movie pick as it will likely follow his theme that the word “sin” should never be mentioned and that we can live our best lives now. It is these false teachers who are sending millions to Satan. I will wait for Mel Gibson’s sequel to The Passion of the Christ.
Martin Scorsese Confirms ‘A Life of Jesus’ Script Is Finished: 80-Minute Movie Will Not ‘Proselytize’
The Oscar winner said he is trying to “take away the negative onus of what has been associated with organized religion” with the upcoming film, co-written by critic Kent Jones and based on “Silence” author Shūsaku Endō’s book.
indiewire.com, BY SAMANTHA BERGESON, JANUARY 8, 2024
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - Scorsese said in an interview with The Los Angeles Times that he co-wrote the adaptation of “Silence” author Shūsaku Endō’s “A Life of Jesus” with critic and filmmaker Kent Jones.
According to the L.A. Times, Scorsese “plans to shoot it later this year” in 2024. Where exactly that leaves production on “The Wager” starring Leonardo DiCaprio remains to be seen. IndieWire has reached out to Scorsese’s representatives for comment.
“I’m trying to find a new way to make it more accessible and take away the negative onus of what has been associated with organized religion,” Scorsese said.
“A Life of Jesus” will be mostly set in the present day, with the L.A. Times noting that the expected 80-minute film will be “focusing on Jesus’ core teachings in a way that explores the principles but doesn’t proselytize.”
“Scorsese doesn’t want to be locked into a certain period,” the article reads, “because he wants the film to feel timeless.”
The “Raging Bull” director revealed he is “still scrapping or scraping or however you want to put it” when it comes to his film output, revealing that “‘Silence,’ ‘The Irishman,’ ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ … these were not movies studios were eager to make.”
Scorsese reflected on the common thread between his filmography, saying, “I tried finding with ‘Kundun’ and ‘The Last Temptation of Christ,’ even ‘Gangs of New York,’ to a certain extent, ways into redemption and the human condition and how we deal with the negative things inside us. Are we decent and then learn to become indecent? Can we change? Will others accept that change? And it really is, I think, a fear of a society and culture that’s corrupted because of its lack of grounding in morality and spirituality. Not religion. Spirituality. Denying that.”
Scorsese continued, “So for me, it’s finding my own way in a … if you want to say the term ‘religious’ sense, but I hate to use that language, because it’s misinterpreted often. But there’s basic fundamental beliefs that I have — or I’m trying to have — and I’m using these films to find it.”
Scorsese recently met with Pope Francis following the Global Aesthetics of the Catholic Imagination in May 2023. The meeting with the Pope led Scorsese to say at the time, “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,” leading to the writing of “A Life of Jesus.”
“Right now, ‘religion,’ you say that word and everyone is up in arms because it’s failed in so many ways,” Scorsese told the L.A. Times. “But that doesn’t mean necessarily that the initial impulse was wrong. Let’s get back. Let’s just think about it. You may reject it. But it might make a difference in how you live your life — even in rejecting it. Don’t dismiss it offhand. That’s all I’m talking about. And I’m saying that as a person who’s going to be 81 in a couple of days.”
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