Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence’ Movie Release Date; Story of Christian Missionaries In Japan and Oscar Contender?

Sep 27, 2016 06:10 AM EDT

If you are not familiar with Martin Scorsese, he is considered one of the finest American directors.  He first hit big with Taxi Driver back in 1976, and he is well known for crime dramas like Goodfellas, Casino, and The Departed.  He is also known for his controversial The Last Temptation of Christ, and he is about to make a different film with a Christian twist with Silence.  This is what is known about Silence with its release date and news. 

According to Deadline, Silence is the story of Portuguese Jesuits who come to Japan in order to find their missing mentor, as well as spreading Christianity.  At the time, the Japanese government was seeking to rid the country of any and all western influences, according to ScreenRant.  In other words, these missionaries are not in a good place to be, and they are in danger.  This is historical fiction, and so it is not based on any actual incident from Japanese history. 

Apparently, Silence is a dream project from the veteran film director as he has been wanting to adapt the 1966 Shusaku Endo novel since early as 1991.  Scorsese has even come close to making Silence many times with such actors like Daniel Day-Lewis, Benicio Del Toro, and Gael Garcia Bernal.  Scorsese worked on the screenplay close with Jay Cocks, who wrote Scorsese's hit film Gangs of New York

The film has quite a cast, including Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Ciaran Hinds, and Andrew Garfield.  What is interesting is that Garfield is also starring in another faith-based film with Hacksaw Ridge by another veteran director Mel Gibson.    

What is interesting is that many believe that Silence is a definite Oscar contender, and most believe the same thing about Hacksaw Ridge.  Does this mean that Oscar Season of 2017 will have many faith-based films in the nomination categories?  Hopefully, Silence will have a good reception. 

If Silence is nominated and wins for Best Picture, it will be another time that the director won an Oscar after The Departed back in 2007. 

Silence will have a release date on December 23, 2016.  There have already been many comparisons to Silence to last year's Oscar-winning The Reverent, they are both arthouse films that had a release date around Christmas.

According to Variety, there are other Oscar contenders like La La Land, a musical with Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling; Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan's portrait of a family tragedy; and Fences, Denzel Washington'adaptationon of August Wilson's play.