| Daniel Day-Lewis and Benicio del Toro have just signed on to star in Silence, the next film from Martin Scorsese. And we all know what that means, readers – lock up your Oscars. Based on the novel by Shusako Endo, Silence will tell the story of two Jesuit priests who travel to Japan in the 17th century to find their mentor and spread the word of God. Naturally, they don’t have an easy time of it when they get there. There’s no word yet on which roles Day-Lewis and del Toro will play (Gael Garcia Bernal is also circling the project, which complicates matters yet further), but we’d be surprised if they didn’t play the two Jesuit priests. Scorsese has been angling to adapt the Endo novel for over a decade, and now he’s getting his wish, with filming likely to start in New Zealand later this year. Brit producer Graham King, who produced The Departed and Gangs Of New York is financing the film himself, which is a hell of a brave move in these Credit Crunchie times. The prospect of a new Scorsese is always appealing, of course, but we’ll confess that we’re particularly interested to see what fireworks are generated by his collaboration with Day-Lewis (who, of course, was wonderful as Bill the Butcher in Gangs Of New York) and del Toro. If he can find a role for Bobby De Niro in there somewhere, we might just explode. Amazingly for a film with such high-profile credentials, Silence has no domestic distributor at present. Expect that to change asap.
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