Acclaimed director Martin Scorsese has his next project on deck — and it’s about Jesus Christ.
The “Taxi Driver” filmmaker, 80, received a blessing from Pope Francis for his upcoming movie.
After attending the Cannes Film Festival last week, Scorsese visited Italy and had a conversation with Antonio Spadaro, editor-in-chief of the magazine “La Civiltà Cattolica” — translated to the “Catholic Civilization” — Monday.
He revealed within the chat that he recently saw the pontiff, 86.
“I responded to the Pope’s appeal to artists the one way I know the way: by imagining and writing a screenplay for a movie about Jesus,” he said. “And I’m about to start out making it.”
The “Aviator” director — who was raised Catholic and infrequently deals with religious subjects in his movies — also spoke with Spadaro about his popularity of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1964 epic “The Gospel In accordance with St. Matthew,” in addition to his experience working on his 1988 drama “The Last Temptation of Christ.”
He also discussed “the following step in his research on the figure of Jesus” — defined by his 2016 film “Silence.” The film, starring Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver, detailed the killing of Jesuits in Seventeenth-century Japan.
Scorsese’s sit-down was a part of “The Global Aesthetics of the Catholic Imagination” conference that was held on the Villa Malta in Rome.
The event was organized by Civiltà Cattolica together with Georgetown University.
Spadaro and the Oscar-winner had crossed paths previously, with the Jesuit journalist interviewing the latter in 2016 about “Silence.”
Scorsese even divulged that he considered entering the priesthood in his younger years and had all the time desired to make a movie in regards to the clergy.
“After I was younger, I used to be pondering of creating a movie about being a priest. I actually desired to follow in Father Principe’s footsteps, so to talk, and be a priest. I went to a preparatory seminary but I failed out the primary 12 months,” he said.
“And I spotted, on the age of 15, that a vocation is something very special, you could’t acquire it, and you’ll be able to’t have one simply because you desire to be like someone else,” he added. “You may have to have a real calling.”
Father Frank Principe was the “Goodfellas” director’s priest while he grew up in Little Italy.
“This man was an actual guide,” Scorsese gushed over his old pastor. “He could talk tough, but he never actually forced you to do anything — he guided you. Advised you. Cajoled you. He had such extraordinary love.”
