At one point the cast included Daniel Day-Lewis, Benicio del Toro and Gael Garcia Bernal, but it’s taken quite a long time for Martin Scorsese to get Silence off the ground and people move on while other projects stall.
Silence, however, is finally coming together. With the production eying a 2014 start, Scorsese has set Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Social Network) and Ken Watanabe (Inception, The Last Samurai) to star in the film based on Shusaku Endo’s novel adapted for the screen by Jay Cocks and Variety‘s news item reporting it will be a Japaense-language film. Issei Ogata (Yi Yi) also stars.
The story is set in the 17th century as two Jesuit priests face violence and persecution when they travel to Japan to locate their mentor and to spread the gospel of Christianity.
Garfield will star as Father Rodrigues, a Portuguese Jesuit who travels to Japan with a fellow priest amid rumors his mentor has abandoned the Church. It is a moment of religious persecution in the Asian nation, with Christians forced to practice their faith clandestinely. Watanabe will portray the priests’ interpreter.
The Variety article goes into additional detail when it comes to the project and its long road to the big screen.
