Martin Scorsese has an unrivaled career. He has been a consistently great filmmaker for seven decades, as evidenced by the fact that his last release, Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) was up for Best Picture. He has shown no signs of slowing down, and he has made this point abundantly clear during interviews.
Scorsese wants to get as many films made as possible, while he still can. As a result, he has talked about several different stories and properties that he would like to take a crack at over the last year. It's been exciting, but it's also been confusing to sort through. Is Marty making his long-anticipated Sinatra biopic, or is his long-gestating Jesus film with Andrew Garfield getting the green light? Let's discuss.
Scorsese wants to adapt a Marilynn Robinson novel
For starters, the Sinatra and Jesus films are not getting made anytime soon. Both were set to begin production in 2025, with Scorsese planning to shoot them back-to-back, but they were shelved for reasons seemingly unrelated to one another. Scorsese recently directed a live tribute concert to his late musical collaborator, Robbie Robertson, but that doesn't count as a narrative release.
He's also promoting Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints, a new docudrama series. It was during this press tour that the director revealed another candidate for his next theatrical release: Home. He told Associated Press that there's a "strong possibility" that he will adapt the Marilynn Robinson novel of the same next, barring any scheduling issues.
Scorsese also teased a film about his parents
He also floated a more personal alternative, if the aforementioned scheduling for Home doesn't come together:
"There’s also a possibility of me going back and dealing with the stories from my mother and father from the past and how they grew up... Which tied into my trip to Sicily."
It's obvious the director is eager to dive into a new film, but financing and scheduling have proven to be deterrents. It's worth noting that it took Scorsese years to get films like Silence (2016) and The Irishman (2019) made, so there is an unfortunate precedent for this lengthy process.
As the director told AP, however, he's not getting any younger. "I’d like to shoot a movie right now," he admitted. "Time is going. I’ll be 82. Gotta go." We can only hope to get concrete details on what the master's next film will be. In the meantime, Killers of the Flower Moon is streaming on Apple Plus.