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Week in Review: Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence’ is finally getting made

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Week in Review: Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence’ is finally getting made

Scorsese

One of the most anticipated films of 2015 is Martin Scorsese’s Silence. Although that anticipation was under the presumption that Silence would actually come out this year, let alone be made. The film has been in pre-production for ages, by Marty’s account, nearly two decades, but the film is finally coming together with funding from Fábrica de Cine and SharpSword Films, Deadline reported.

Silence stars Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver (yes, he’s in EVERYTHING now) as two Jesuit priests in 17th Century Japan on a mission to spread Christianity and locate their mentor, played by Liam Neeson. The pair face incredible, violent persecution while on their journey, and the film has been likened to Scorsese’s last East Asia epic, Kundun.

Silence is based on a 1966 novel by Shūsaku Endō and is adapted from a script by Jay Cocks, who worked with Scorsese on his last long delayed period piece, Gangs of New York. It’s now set to begin shooting as early as next week, but we’ll hold out hope that Thelma Schoonmaker can cobble together a movie for release before the end of this year.

This week a drunk Will Ferrell hit a cheerleader in the face with a basketball at a New Orleans Pelicans game, because, you know, it was a Thursday. Actually, Ferrell was, you know, acting. The stunt was recorded for a new movie he’s shooting called Daddy’s Home, also starring Mark Wahlberg, Linda Cardellini, and Hannibal Burress and is being co-directed by Sean Anders and John Morris (Horrible Bosses 2). The video above gives a pretty full look at the scene, but The Huffington Post compiled a good collection of other Vines, photos and videos that give a good look at Ferrell really going to town on that poor cheerleader. And I wouldn’t doubt this short fan video will turn out better than the movie itself.

Marvel superheroes Chris Pratt and Chris Evans are also superfans of the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, respectively. So after Seattle pulled off their incredible 4th Quarter and overtime victory over the Green Bay Packers, Captain America started a little Twitter war with Starlord. Buzzfeed has the full “dispute”, but here’s just a taste of the stakes they put up.

 

 

Collider reported Monday that Louis C.K. would be expanding his role even further at FX by directing and co-writing a new pilot called Better Things starring his Louie co-star Pamela Adlon. The show sounds like a female Louie, about an actress struggling to make it work while raising three kids. No word yet on when to expect that show, but in the meantime, we can look forward to Season 5 of Louie, which has set a return date of April 9. C.K. has said this later season will be funnier and less of an experiment in dramatic storytelling. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, or not that that means Season 5 of Louie won’t be just as off the wall and fresh as ever.

In this week’s casting news, the CBS show Supergirl has cast Melissa Benoist (Glee, Whiplash) in the title role. Jennifer Lawrence is joining her Hunger Games director the not-related Francis Lawrence in a James Cameron produced biopic about deep sea diving called The Dive. Vanessa Hudgens will play Rizzo in a live adaptation of the musical Grease set to air on Fox in January 2016. A Disney Channel star, David Henrie (Wizards of Waverly Place), has been tapped to play Ronald Reagan in a biopic on the man’s life prior to his term as President. And Rob Lowe is joining a British TV series called Apocalypse Slough.

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