Directing legend Martin Scorsese ironically appears to be having all sorts of trouble with his latest film, Silence. You’d think that a man of his caliber would have no trouble getting all the funding he needs for his projects, but from the get-go, this passion project of his faced the problem of no mainstream appeal. The film stars Liam Neeson, Adam Driver, and Andrew Garfield, and is set in the 17th century. It follows two Jesuit missionaries and their desire to spread their faith in the country of Japan. Along the way, they face violence and persecution in a world where outside views are treated with ridicule.
In short, this isn’t really the uplifting, fun tale of the year that families will be running to the theaters to see. In fact, all the well-known actors had to work for scale wages, and Scorsese himself had to work for less than scale in order to get this project off the ground.
Well, it sounds like the film may be facing yet another obstacle in regards to its runtime. The first indication of this came from Variety writer Kris Tapley, who gave Twitter an open question, asking how long readers thought Silence would be.
By the way, anyone want to guess how long “Silence” is right now?
— Kristopher Tapley (@kristapley) August 18, 2016
When one follower answered with 195 minutes, he confirmed that was the case.
Winner on the dot. https://t.co/l9ioLprVsE
— Kristopher Tapley (@kristapley) August 18, 2016
That’s right, Martin Scorsese’s latest film is looking to be 3 hours and 15 minutes long, which is Scorsese’s longest narrative picture (his absolute longest is the 2011 documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World, which clocked in at 3 hours and 28 minutes). Of course, for all we know, they’ll cut that movie down so that it’s a more digestible length, but apparently, this runtime may be one of the reasons the film has to have a release date, Garth at Dark Horizons points out.
This is a film that’s set to be completed this fall and was expected to gain a release within the year. Is it possible that Silence will miss this year’s Oscar window, or will Scorsese have to cut down this movie so the studio could recoup its investment?
Only time will tell.
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SOURCE: Kris Tapley (via Dark Horizons), THR