Liam Neeson joins Martin Scorsese's 'Silence' alongside Ken Watanabe

Martin Scorsese has wanted to direct 'Silence' for a long time, and it looks like production on the film is finally underway. According to Deadline, the casting is getting finalized, with Liam Neeson joining Andrew Garfield and Ken Watanabe. 

Liam Neeson in 'Taken'

 

The film is reportedly a direct adaptation of the Shusaku Endo novel of the same name, about '17th century Jesuits who try to bring Christianity to isolated Japan'. Scorsese's just coming off the Oscar-nominated Wolf of Wall Street, which just earned Leonardo DiCaprio his umpteenth Oscar nomination as well as Scorsese himself yet another Best Director nomination. While there's too much competition for him to win this year, his next movie would obviously create a feeding frenzy for actors trying to land roles. 

 

However, Garfield and Watanabe have both been cast for a very long time, and it looks like Scorsese's had plans on casting Neeson in the third major role all along. 

Liam Neeson has recently been starring in action movies

 

Liam Neeson will next be seen in the action movie 'Non-Stop', and then will star in Seth MacFarlane's 'A Million Ways To Die In the West', and 'A Walk Among Tombstones'. And what's even more interesting is that Silence will be the first straight up serious drama that Neeson's done in a long time, especially since he's seemed to specialize purely in bang-bang action movies after Taken. Don't forget, Neeson used to star in movies like Schindler's List and Gangs of New York, and he obviously has a great working relationship with Scorsese.