Martin Scorsese’s Impossible Goal

Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:

Martin Scorsese’s Jesus, Jacob Elordi’s Frankenstein, Olivia Colman curses and a soccer ball.

Let’s go!

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MARTIN SCORSESE'S IMPOSSIBLE GOAL

The Last Temptation of Christ. Universal.

When Martin Scorsese was a teenager, he studied to be a priest.

Now, at 81, Scorsese has just completed the screenplay for his newest film project, inspired by his visit with the Pope last summer.

The script is based on the book ​A Life of Jesus​ by Shūsaku Endō, who also wrote the novel on which ​Silence​ (2016) is based.

Even when religion is not the subject matter for his films, as in ​The Last Temptation of Christ​ (1988), ​Kundun​ (1997), and Silence, his characters still grapple with faith.

In Mean Streets, Harvey Keitel struggled to reckon his violence with his Catholicism. In Raging Bull, the need for self-redemption clings to Robert De Niro. In ​Bringing Out the Dead​ (1999), Nicolas Cage struggles as a literal redeemer of the dead as an NYC EMT.

Scorsese reflected:

“I tried finding with Kundun and The Last Temptation of Christ, even Gangs of New York, to a certain extent, ways into redemption and the human condition and how we deal with the negative things inside us… Are we decent and then learn to become indecent? Can we change?”