Saint Marty Scorsese is obsessed with Jesus. He’s already set to direct “The Life of Jesus,” for which a portion of the script was released earlier this afternoon. More famously, he’s directed “Silence” and “The Last Temptation of Christ” — two of the greatest films made about faith.
It’s now been announced, via press release, that Martin Scorsese is making and hosting a show on Fox News Channel’s streaming service, Fox Nation. The series is an eight-part docudrama slated for November 2024. May we present: “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints.” It was co-written by Scorsese’s frequent collaborator, Kent Jones.
Each hour-long episode will explore “the remarkable stories of eight men and women who risked everything to embody humanity’s most noble and complex trait — faith.” Scorsese will cover 2,000 years of history, and eight saints: Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian, and Maximillian Kolbe.
Given the vehement hate some have for Fox News, it didn’t take long for backlash to ensue.
IndieWire admitted to having “conflicted” feelings about the project. Screen Slate went a step further and said there was even more reason to get “mad” since the docu series was being produced by “Hollywood Zionist” Matti Leshem. Filmmaker Ted Geoghegan called the news “disappointing.” Variety writer Joe Leydon frustratingly tweeted “Nope.”
What’s the big deal here? Jesus Christ, man. Just let Marty make his Jesus projects. Word on the street is that he’s been shopping this one around for over a year now, and it’s been offered to numerous streamers and networks, but only Fox Nation was truly interested.
Scorsese joins Kevin Costner, Rob Lowe, Matthew McConaughey and Dan Aykroyd as the latest Hollywood figure to work with the platform. I’ve read the press release, and no matter how much more pressure he might get to drop out of this one, I don’t think he can pull out. The deal is signed. It’s coming in November 2024.
The fact is that Fox Nation is probably the closest to a large market Scorsese’s ever going to find for funding, distribution, and viewership of this faith-based project. The viewership of Fox Nation skews more religious. Scorsese is deeply catholic in his worldview, so it shouldn’t come as that much of a shock that he’s making this.
Criterion's December lineup has some great additions to the library, but the title that jumped out at me is Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which officially joins the Collection on December 8.