Rumors on this have popped up over the past few years, but here’s confirmation: Scorcese is, indeed, going to film an adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s novel, Silence (from an interview with his editor)

A movie called ‘Silence’, which is based on a great Japanese novel about 16th century Portuguese missionaries in Japan. It’s something very close to Scorsese’s heart – he’s wanted to make it for many years but he’s never really had the time to write the script and get it funded. But we’re all hoping that this time it’s going to happen, and it looks like we’re going to shoot it in New Zealand as well. That will be very exciting, and I think I will have to do a lot of research for that one!

A super-brief piece on the novel by me, originally published in Liguorian