By: Eric Eisenberg

Martin Scorsese has been working regularly for almost the span of his entire career, putting out a new movie every couple of years or so since the 1970s, but for the last decade or so there has been two projects in particular that have never been able to fully grab the Oscar-winning director’s full attention. The first is an adaptation of the Charles Brandt book ‘I Heard You Paint Houses” titled The Irishman, a gangster story that would reportedly have Robert De Niro reteaming with Scorsese and starring as real-life mob hitman Frank Sheeran alongside the likes of Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. The other project is Silence, an adaptation of the Shusaku Endo novel about two Jesuit priests who face violence while trying to spread the gospel of Christianity in Japan. Both projects have been on Scorsese’s ‘To Do” list for years now and with his next film, The Wolf of Wall Street, due out later this year he will soon have a choice to make between them regarding which one he will want to do next.

And while Scorsese is still very much interested in making The Irishman, it appears as though Silence will be the next film that the director tackles.Deadline reports that the director recently brought together De Niro, Pacino and Pesci for a staged reading of Steve Zaillian’s script for The Irishman at the Tribeca Film center, but when Scorsese’s people were asked for comment they said that he’s “holding fast to his dream of making Silencethe next film he directs.” He has apparently already started auditioning actors for the story’s leads and is looking to start production sometime in mid-2014.

In the meantime The Wolf of Wall Street is due out in a few months, though Paramount Pictures has not yet nailed down a specific release date.The film is based on the book of the same name and tells the story of Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) as he experiences the ups and downs of the financial world during the 80s.

Source: Cinema Blend