Martin Scorsese to Direct 80-Minute Film About Jesus

Martin Scorsese revealed a few moons back about his plans to direct a movie featuring Jesus and it seems like he's all set to roll the cameras this year.

Chit-chatting with the Los Angeles Times in their Monday article, the 81-year-old Scorsese spilled that he and his partner-in-crime Kent Jones have wrapped up the screenplay for the flick and are gearing up to hit the shoot button in 2024.

Now, this 80-minute feature film is riding on the coattails of the novel 'A Life of Jesus' by the late Japanese storyteller Shūsaku Endō. If that name rings a bell, it's probably because he's the brains behind 'Silence,' a 1966 novel that Scorsese turned into a film in 2016, starring Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver.

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While the makers behind 'Killers of the Flower Moon' are still deep-diving into inspiration with Jones for this fresh Jesus-infused project, he spilled the beans that he plans to keep it real in the present day and keep it snappy with an 80-minute runtime. Quite the departure from his last two epics, 'Killers' and 'The Irishman,' which each took their sweet time clocking well over three hours.

Scorsese explained that he's on a mission to make the movie more approachable and shake off the not-so-great vibes tied to organized religion. He's keen on flipping the script on the word "religion."

Scorsese had already tipped his hat to this whole 'Jesus' film gig after rubbing shoulders with Pope Francis at the Vatican in May 2023. He said "I've heeded the Pope's call to artists in the only way I know how: by dreaming up and penning a screenplay for a Jesus flick. And I'm gearing up to turn it into reality."

It's worth noting that Catholicism and the whole divine jazz have been on Scorsese's creative palette before, with works like 'Silence' and the 1988 flick 'The Last Temptation of Christ.'

As for Scorsese's latest masterpiece, 'Killers,' it bagged an accolade at the 2024 Golden Globe Awards recently, with Lily Gladstone snagging the best actress in a drama for her lead role as Mollie Burkhart. The film is gearing up for a whopping 12 nominations at the upcoming 2024 Critics Choice Awards on 14th January.