SILENT - NO MORE!

I'm SOOOOOO excited. A friend just forwarded me the following release. It's not the law suit that's got me excited, but the project!

Celebrated director Martin Scorsese is being sued for allegedly failing to have a medical examination for his new film Silence. Hollywood Gang Productions filed the breach of contract lawsuit against the Goodfellas creator in Manhattan Superior Court on September 3, claiming Scorsese agreed in February to "submit to a physical examination" but ignored repeated requests to fulfill that commitment and consequently lost the company insurance cover for the period drama - about Jesuit priests in 16th Century Japan. Hollywood Gang Productions' lawyer, Richard Golub, says, "All we want to do is stick a thermometer in him." The company had a contract with Scorsese which gave them power to take out a $1 million policy to insure themselves in case anything happened to the director during production. They are now seeking legal fees of more than $10,000.

Oh, the project! I love Endo's Silence, and use it with all my RCIA students. Along with Howard's End (on the secular side), I think Silence is one of the most important novels of the 20th Century. Certainly, one of the greatest Christian ones.

And, if I had to handpick the director to make the movie, ten times a hundred times, it would be Scorcese. He can do it! He can do it! We need to pray for him, however.

My big concern about this project is that, like any great Christian novel, (ie. Brideshead Revisited, The Power and the Glory, Wise Blood, etc.) taken from the wrong perspective, the project could seem to be anti-Christian. So, many of my RCIA students, don't get the point of the book, and some are actually scandalized by it. But for those who GET it, it becomes a benchmark. And so, I always take the risk and keep it in the program.

So, I'm very excited and a little anxious. I was thinking of actually whipping off a letter to Scorcese's company, pleading to just have an hour or so to talk about the theological meaning of the book.... Have to figure out a way to get an audience without appearing like a complete wacko. Or a profiteer, which would be worse.

But, anyway. I'm SO excited to think we'll get to see this film soon! Get thee to a doctor, Martin!