Locations

[foeller]

The director made a low-profile trip to Taipei earlier this week for his upcoming period drama about Jesuit missionaries in 17th Century Japan, which will begin shooting in September.

After a trip to Tokyo with Leonardo DiCaprio for the local premiere of The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese touched down in Taiwan earlier this week for a discreet few days of location scouting for his upcoming period film Silence.

Jennifer Jao, director of the Taipei Film Commission, accompanied the director and tells THR he was pleased with what he saw in Taiwan and has signed on to shoot much of Silence on the island, with a targeted start date in September.

Scorsese's trip coincided with the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday and Jao says the 71-year-old director was visibly intrigued by the bustle and colorful traditions that transform the island during the festivities – with families packing out local restaurants for celebratory meals, and fireworks exploding over Taipei.
Scorsese and his team spent some time viewing the capital, but focused most of their scouting in Hualian County in eastern Taiwan, checking out temples, rivers, forests, a volcano and Japanese style-buildings from the wartime occupation period.

Silence is set to star Liam Neesen, Andrew Garfield, Japanese A-lister Ken Watanabe and Adam Driver, best known from Girls. Based on Shusaku Endo’s 1966 novel of the same name, Silence tells the story of two 17th century Portuguese missionaries who undertake a perilous journey to Japan to search for their mentor, and to spread the gospel of Christianity. The script was adapted by Scorsese and Jay Cocks. Scorsese first began developing the project in 1990, but it was delayed numerous times over of the years for various reasons.

www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/martin-scorsese-scouts-locations-silence-678187

[will]

From The Wrap:
www.thewrap.com/martin-scorcese-plans-shoot-japanese-novel-silence-taiwan-guest-blog/

Martin Scorsese plans to shoot his new movie “Silence” in Taiwan rather than in Japan, after seeing what Taiwanese-American director Ang Lee was able to accomplish there with Oscar-winner “Life of Pi.” In fact, with more and more Hollywood films shooting parts of their films in Taipei and other scenic spots around the island nation, some people have taken to calling the evolving cinema world of Taiwan as “Tollywood.”

Although the Scorsese film is based on an obscure 1966 Japanese novel that tells the story of a hapless Jesuit missionary trying in vain to introduce Christianity to Buddhist and Shinto Japan in the 1600s, Scorsese has already scouted locations in Taiwan after getting a welcoming greenlight from Lee.

In February of 2014, Scorsese and a small production team visited Taiwan on an eight-day trip to scout locations for the movie. They visited Taipei, Taichung and Hualien in their search for potential film locations for the movie, which is based on a Japanese novel set in Japan.

Scorsese feels the Taiwan location will be less stressful and more colorful than shooting the period piece in the real Japan of today, since Taiwan still contains architecture and village scenes from the Japanese Colonial Period (1895-1945) when Japan ruled the island with a colonial mindset.

Taipei Film Commission director Jennifer Jao told local media that Scorsese “likes Taiwan very much” and plans to be back on location in the summer to shoot the film.

“We hope that the film will be shot entirely in Taiwan,” Jao told a reporter for Apple Daily, adding that the commission will provide crew, some cast members, film equipment, transportation services and media assistance to Scorsese and his team during filming.

According to media reports, actors signed up to be in the film include Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield, Ken Watanabe and Adam Driver.

The 71-year-old director and his crew went undiscovered in Taiwan during their February visit as they scouted locations, but when a customer at a Hualien recognized the director, the entertainment media had a field day snapping photos and writing stories. Prior to touching down in Taipei, Scorsese had been in Tokyo to promote “The Wolf of Wall Street” along with stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill by his side.

While “Silence” will be shot in Taiwan, the movie will be released as a Japanese-language film with Japanese dialog dubbed in in post-production, according to sources.

Garfield and Watanabe have already been cast in the movie, the sources said.

Scorsese went to Cannes last year to try to sell “Silence” — a personal pet project still in development after 24 years of gestation — to foreign buyers, and he’s ready to roll on the project he started in 1989.

Taipei City and the surrounding countryside will serve as the principal photography locations and Taiwanese film officials, already happy with the global publicity that native son Lee’s “Life of Pi” brought in, are more than welcoming to Scorcese’s plans, according to local media here.

While Taiwan is not Japan, Taiwan was a colony of Japan for 50 years and much of the country still retains many areas and buildings that look like they belong right in the middle of old Tokyo.

Scorsese apparently got the idea to shoot the movie in Taiwan after personally conferring with Lee and getting his personal recommendation. Scorsese said Lee recommended that he seriously consider thinking about shooting “Silence” in Taiwan when the two men chatted after attending a screening Scorcese’s “Hugo” three years ago.

Lee was in the middle of filming “Life of Pi” at the time and had nothing but good things to say about the crews and government officials he was working with in his native land. Scorcese listened, and after “Pi” won an Oscar for Lee in early 2013, he made his decision to film in Taiwan, too.

The Japanese novelist Endo (1923-1996) was a minority Catholic in a Buddhist and Shinto nation and “Silence” — titled “Chin-mo-ku” in Japanese — tells the tale of a Jesuit missionary who faced severe prejudice and persecution at that time in Japan’s history. The novel, which won the 1966 Tanizaki Prize in Tokyo but was never read much outside Japan, is partly written as a letter by a foreign missionary who questions and yet revels in the existence of a Christian God.

Critics in Japan have said that the theme of “a silent God” who supports a Jesuit in adversity was greatly influenced by the Endo’s own personal experience of religious discrimination in Japan.

Scorsese, who is Catholic himself, has long been fascinated by the Christian religious impulse and vocation, as seen in his 1988 Paul Schrader-scripted “The Last Temptation of Christ,” is no stranger to arguing with God. “Christ” was based on the Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis’s 1960 novel which spoke of the life of Christ in human terms rather than traditional divine terms.

[arnzilla]

While “Silence” will be shot in Taiwan, the movie will be released as a Japanese-language film with Japanese dialog dubbed in in post-production, according to sources.

I assume they mean dubbed for Chinese audiences.

[will]

Do they mean the entire dialogue will be dubbed in Japanese? And why for Chinese audiences?

[arnzilla]

I think they mean dubbed into Chinese for Chinese audiences because Apple Daily is a Chinese newspaper.

[arnzilla]

Maybe they mean "dubbed over."

[arnzilla]

The whole sentence is weird.

[foeller]

Yeah, that is not a well written blog. And that's coming from a person who's not native English speaker.

[arnzilla]

According to IMDb's Antonia, "support staff has yet to be mobilized to location."

[will]

I think the potential start dates that have been mentioned were August-September, November and recently I saw an article that said early 2014.

[nas78]

Judging from Garfields beard i think we r pretty close to filming...


Although he dose not want to talk about it...

“A beard’s a beard and this is one of them,” a disdainful-looking Garfield told a foreign reporter who said he “had to ask” whether the facial hair was for a role or a personal choice.
“It may, it may, yeah, possibly,” Garfield said when pressed. “We’ll talk about that later when we’re not wasting other people’s time.”

I`m guessing Jan 2015...after the holidays...

[nas78]

Marty is in Taiwan for scouting
focustaiwan.tw/news/aeas/201411260025.aspx

Taipei, Nov. 26 (CNA) Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese could shoot his new historical drama "Silence" in Taichung next year, according to the mayor of the central city on Wednesday.

Mayor Jason Hu told the media that earlier in the day, Scorsese visited Taichung Gateway Park -- where scenes in Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" were filmed -- to inspect a wave pool for "Silence," the story of Jesuit missionaries in 17th century Japan.

"The great director praised the good weather and film-making environment in Taichung," the mayor said, revealing that he expects Scorsese's crew to begin shooting in the city between February and March next year around the time of Chinese Lunar New Year.

It was at the recommendation of Taiwan-born Lee, who won an Oscar for best director for "Life of Pi," that Scorsese decided to film in the country, according to Hu.

[nas78]

Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu presents U.S. director Martin Scorsese with a bottle of sorghum wine Nov. 26 in the central Taiwan city.

Taichung City in central Taiwan has been selected as a shooting location for U.S. director Martin Scorsese’s new production “Silence,” with filming set to commence in mid-February 2015.

“We welcome the decision and will throw the full weight of the local government behind the project,” Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu said. “Every effort is being taken to continue implementing related measures and developing Taichung into an innovation-friendly metropolis.”

www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=224530&ctNode=445