Free Republic

While Martin Scorsese is celebrating his latest epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” on the awards circuit, the filmmaker is already teasing what could be his next movie, based on Shūsaku Endō’s book “A Life of Jesus.” (Endō also wrote “Silence,” which Scorsese adapted into the 2016 historical drama starring Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver.) ... “I’m trying to find a new way to make it more accessible and take away the negative onus of what has been associated with organized religion,” Scorsese told the publication. “Right now, ‘religion,’ you say that word and everyone is up in arms because...

LONDON (Reuters) - The Hollywood screenwriter behind the last controversial film about Christ says Mel Gibson (news)'s new film on the crucifixion is violent and disturbing. "It's a well-made movie but it's very violent and infused with a great sense of self-flagellation,", screenwriter for "The Last Temptation of Christ," told Reuters. Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," to be released with an adults-only certificate in Britain Friday, has been heavily criticized for its bloody portrayal of Christ's final hours. A 56-year-old woman died of a heart attack in Wichita, Kan., last month while watching the film's climactic crucifixion scene. Some...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - As debate rages worldwide over Mel Gibson (news)'s "The Passion of the Christ," Mexico is just coming to grips with a Martin Scorsese (news) crucifixion film banned here since its release in 1988. Heavily Catholic Mexico outlawed director Scorsese's film "The Last Temptation of Christ" for portraying a weak-willed Jesus Christ tempted to have sex with Mary Magdalene. It will finally debut in cinemas here on Friday. The film's distributor said this week it was launching "this work of art so the Mexican public can decide for itself and draw its own conclusions." The film has...

David Blaine is being "tortured" by the smell of food wafting up from a burger van parked underneath the transparent box in which he is spending 44 days without food. The New York illusionist, 30, has been suspended 40ft in the air in his tiny plexiglass central London "home" since Friday. Tony Montana, manager of the Riverside Refreshments van parked just 50 yards from Blaine said: "If he doesn't like it, that's tough. We can't move the smell." Montana has even extended his opening hours as Blaine's stunt has upped his takings to over £1,000 a day from the transfixed...