Martin Scorsese has made it clear that he doesn’t plan to stop directing anytime soon.
The filmmaker, who will turn 82 on November 17, said that he still hopes to complete films he has in development during a press conference at the Museum of Cinema in Turin, Italy, on Monday.
‘I’m not saying goodbye to cinema at all,’ he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Academy Award winner — who was accompanied by his aspiring filmmaker daughter Francesca Scorsese — was being honored with the museum’s Stella della Mole lifetime achievement award.
‘I still have more films to make, and I hope God gives me the strength to make them,’ he continued.
Martin Scorsese, 81, said he wasn’t retiring from making films on Monday during a press conference at the Museum of Cinema in Turin, Italy; seen in March in Beverly Hills
‘I’m not saying goodbye to cinema at all,’ he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter; pictured directing Robert De Niro on the set of Taxi Driver in NYC in 1975
Scorsese’s response comes in the context of his Oscar-nominated Wester crime epic Killers Of The Flower Moon.
The film details a series of murders of members of the Osage Nation in the early 1920s. An investigation that laid the groundwork for the modern FBI later determined that white residents had been marrying members of the tribe in order to gain access to their lucrative oil money, before murdering them.
Other white members of the community siphoned off the tribe’s oil wealth by forcing Osage members into discriminatory guardianships.
Some critics and viewers wondered if the film could be Scorsese’s farewell to cinema, as he makes a cameo appearance in the film’s moving penultimate scene in which he recounts the legal response to the crimes.
But the Taxi Driver director apparently didn’t intend to give the impression that he was saying goodbye to cinema, as he is reportedly working on two films: a biopic of Frank Sinatra and a film inspired by the life of Jesus.
Scorsese, who was feted at the ceremony by his Last Temptation Of Christ star Willem Dafoe, shared that he was taking a break from narrative films to work on a non-fiction project in Italy
‘I’m filming between Ustica and Taormina. It’s a documentary about marine archaeology,’ he revealed.
The film is inspired by the work of the underwater archaeologist Lisa Briggs and her research project Shipwreck of Sicily.
Briggs is able to use DNA testing of items brought up to the surface from shipwrecks to paint a picture of the lives of sailors — and the ships they sailed on — going back to ancient times.
Scorsese’s work on the documentary follows reports last month that his films on Sinatra and Jesus had been postponed.
Although it’s unclear when filming will begin on the projects, Variety reported that the director would not begin shooting either in 2024.
The Life Of Jesus, based on the 1973 novel of the same name by Shūsaku Endō, was expected to be the first film Scorsese would shoot.
The Life Of Jesus is reportedly still in development, and no cast has been officially announced.
Scorsese previously adapted another Endō novel in 2016’s acclaimed Silence, a long-gestating passion project for the director that starred Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver and Liam Neeson.
‘I still have more films to make, and I hope God gives me the strength to make them,’ he continued. He collected Museum of Cinema’s prestigious Stella della Mole lifetime achievement award on Monday
Scorsese was joined by his daughter Francesca, an aspiring filmmaker and TikTok star; seen Monday
Willem Dafoe, who played Jesus in his film The Last Temptation Of Christ, was on hand to fete the filmmaker
Although Scorsese’s Sinatra biopic and his adaptation of Shūsaku Endō’s The Life Of Jesus were postponed recently, he’s staying busy by executive producing a TV adaptation of his 1991 Cape Fear remake with Steven Spielberg; seen with Nick Nolte on the Cape Fear set
Scorsese’s Sinatra project was first announced way back in 2009, and the most recent push to make it got as far as to announce a November 2024 start date, though that was later canceled in August of this year.
According to Variety, one sticking point on the film may be the need to get the approval of Sinatra’s estate, which is controlled by his daughter Tina Sinatra.
The film will reportedly delve into difficult details of Sinatra’s marriage to Ava Gardner, as well as the dissolution of his previous marriage to Tina’s mother Nancy Barbato.
Scorsese still has other projects on his plate, including a TV adaptation of his 1991 remake of Cape Fear, which he is executive producing with Steven Spielberg.
