The release of a Martin Scorsese film is always a special event, but when that film is SILENCE, a passion project of Scorsese's for close to three decades, you can't help but let your expectations spiral out of control. Production on Scorsese's epic wrapped up last year but Paramount Pictures has been fairly quiet on when SILENCE might be released, until now. Feeling as though they have an Oscar contender on their hands (I'd be surprised if they didn't) Paramount will give SILENCE a limited-release on December 23, 2016 before expanding wide in January 2017.
SILENCE, which is currently clocking in at a whopping 195 minutes, tells the story of two 17th-century Jesuit priests who travel to Japan to investigate claims of religious persecution and whether or not their mentor has broken from the church. The film stars Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver as the young priests and the Liam Neeson as their mentor. This announcement puts SILENCE opening just several days after the release of ASSASSIN'S CREED, SING, PASSENGERS and the same day as J. A. Bayona's A MONSTER CALLS, which also features the talents of Liam Neeson. I can only imagine how these valets will react to that news.