For two decades, Martin Scorsese has worked his critically acclaimed butt off to make his passion project Silence a reality. Last year, after securing $50 million and spending 14 weeks shooting in Thailand, the film finally came together. That was back in May 2015, however, and the wait for a release date has been going on ever since.
Well, the wait is now over. Paramount has announced Silence will receive a limited release on December 23rd before going wide in January 2017.
The December release date puts the film out in time for Scorsese to once more enter the Oscar race, but it also means it will be up against some stiff box office competition. Two days before Silence drops, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt’s sci-fi romance Passengers, Michael Fassbender’s video game adaption Assassin’s Creed, and the cartoon musical Sing will all hit the screen.
Still, Scorsese’s big cinematic return following 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street is sure to draw a crowd, even in limited release. The three-hour-plus adaptation of Shüsaku Endō’s novel of the same name stars Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Ciaran Hinds, and Tadanobu Asano. The story follows a pair of Jesuit priests who head to Japan in search of their mentor. However, they encounter persecution as they preach Christianity along their quest.
We’ll have to see if Silence can nab Scorsese his 13th Oscar nom and/or second win when the 89th Academy Awards take place on February 26th, 2016.
