martin scorsese

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As Silence prepares to hit select theaters this weekend (the rest of you will have to wait until January), Paramount has unveiled a new international trailer for Martin Scorsese’s long-developing passion project — an epic drama based on Japanese author Shusaku Endo’s acclaimed novel. There are a couple of notable things about this trailer for Silence: For one, it’s a bit more intense than the domestic versions, and because it’s a Japanese trailer, the Japanese cast members are more prominently featured.

A helpful mantra to repeat to yourself while reading this article might be “I trust Martin Scorsese. I trust Martin Scorsese. I trust Martin Scorsese.” And whatever you do, try to envision Benjamin Button and not, say, a certain baffling posthumous CGI rendering featured in Rogue One. That said, here’s the news: Martin Scorsese is planning to use advanced CGI technology to de-age Robert De Niro in The Irishman — come to think of it, they’ve been planning this movie for so long that de-aging De Niro seems reasonable.

Paramount hasn't been historically known for their baller moves, but when it comes to their bold anti-promotional campaign for Martin Scorsese's Silence, game must recognize game. Keeping a major awards horse almost entirely on the down-low until one month before its December 23 release is one thing; when that movie also happens to be a passion project decades in the making from what very well might be our greatest living filmmaker — American or otherwise — well, that's just showing off. A Martin Scorsese movie sells itself, and Paramount has now reminded the moviegoing public of why that is.

Given how much space physical media takes up, it’s hard for movie buffs to say no to the great promise of “cloud storage,” and the idea that we could summon anything we want to watch with just a couple of clicks. But so far, reality hasn’t matched the hype. Streaming services have been focused on exclusives and original programming, to the extent that the only way to have access to everything available is to spend hundreds of dollars a month on subscription fees. Meanwhile, older films keep disappearing from the digital archives; and even items that cinephiles “own” sometimes become inaccessible whenever software updates or a site shutters.

Paramount has yet to confirm a release date for Martin Scorsese’s new film, Silence, which may or may not hit theaters during awards season. The iconic director’s latest is a period drama based on the Shūsaku Endō novel of the same name, and stars Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver — and although we’ve seen a few stills from the film, the studio has yet to release an official trailer, making Silence and its potential late-2016 arrival all the more intriguing. Adding to that curiosity is a new report suggesting that the forthcoming drama may be Scorsese’s longest film to date.

Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas won just one Oscar (for supporting actor Joe Pesci) at the 1991 Academy Awards. (The year’s Best Picture winner was Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves.) But the film seems to grow more popular and critically acclaimed every year, to the point where it’s now considered one of Scorsese’s masterpieces, one of the best movies of the 1990s, and perhaps the best gangster film ever made without the word “godfather” in the title. Astonishingly (at least it feels astonishing to an old man like me), it’s been 25 years since Goodfellas made its debut in theaters, an anniversary Scorsese and his cast and crew will celebrate next month with a 25th anniversary screening and reunion at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival.

There are a number of Ramones-related projects in the works including a Martin Scorsese dramatized film and a documentary on the group.