Martin Scorsese is making another film inspired by religion.
The famed director, fresh off his “Killers of the Flower Moon” standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival, met with Pope Frances at the Vatican in Italy, where he announced his plans to create a film about Jesus.
“I have responded to the Pope’s appeal to artists in the only way I know how: by imagining and writing a screenplay for a film about Jesus,” Scorsese reportedly announced during a conference in Rome on Saturday, as per Variety.
“And I’m about to start making it,” the Oscar winner added.
Prior to the conference, Scorsese and his wife, Helen Morris, were introduced to Pope Francis during a private audience.
Variety also reports that Antonio Spadaro – the editor of the religious periodical whom organized the conference, titled “The Global Aesthetics of the Catholic Imagination” – shared some details from the event on the publication’s website, noting that Scorsese and the Pope’s conversation included references to the director’s films and personal anecdotes. Scorsese also explained “how the Holy Father’s appeal ‘to let us see Jesus’ moved him,” Spadaro said.
Thank you to Martin #Scorsese for accepting the invitation to join us of La Civiltà Cattolica and Georgetown University – along with his wife and daughter – in the meeting of 40 poets and writers from different Countries with #PopeFrancesco, who said among other things, “This is… pic.twitter.com/yG6bEyo2Wq
— Antonio Spadaro (@antoniospadaro) May 27, 2023
The upcoming film won’t be Scorsese’s first project inspired by religion. In 1988 he released “The Last Temptation of Christ”; 1997’s “Kundun” told the story of the Dalai Lama’s life and in 2016 he debuted “Silence” about Jesuit Christians.