Martin Scorsese's next movie has reportedly been revealed, with the legendary filmmaker set to tackle a story about Jesus Christ. Best known for movies like Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, The Departed, and The Irishman, Scorsese is one of the most revered directors of all time. The filmmaker recently premiered his new film, Killers of the Flower Moon, at Cannes ahead of its wide release later this year.

Following the Killers of the Flower Moon premiere, Scorsese attended the "Global Aesthetics of the Catholic Imagination" conference in Rome, reportedly sharing, per Variety, that he is gearing up for production on a new movie about Jesus. To that end, the renowned director and his wife apparently just had a private audience with Pope Francis himself. Check out Scorsese's full comment about the project below:

“I have responded to the Pope’s appeal to artists in the only way I know how: by imagining and writing a screenplay for a film about Jesus. And I’m about to start making it.

Martin Scorsese's Exploration Of Religion Through Film

If Scorsese's next project is indeed a movie about Jesus, it won't be the first time that he has explored religion in one of his films. One of the director's earliest forays into religious territory can be seen in 1967's Who's That Knocking at My Door. The film chronicles a New Yorker reckoning with his Catholic upbringing after falling in love with a local girl and discovering something troubling in her past. Scorsese also explores religion in a much more explicit way in 1988's The Last Temptation of Christ, which stars Willem Dafoe as Jesus.

While many subsequent films would also deal with religious themes, including 1997's Kundun, it wasn't until 2016's Silence that Scorsese once more tackled a story about faith head-on. The film stars Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, and Liam Neeson, telling the story of two Portuguese Jesuit priests who travel to Japan to propagate Catholicism and find their lost mentor. Despite strong reviews from critics, Silence was a major box office flop.

Although Scorsese is now 80 years old, he's showing no signs of slowing down just yet. That being said, this new phase of his career has been interesting in of the subject matter he explores, with The Irishman tackling themes of mortality through a more traditional gangster story and Killers of the Flower Moon chronicling sensitive historical events. If Scorsese's next movie is indeed due to get underway soon, it's likely that more details about the project will emerge in the coming months.

Source: Variety