Scorsese’s longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker says that the director is still keen on tackling religious subject matter in future films:
“He wants to make more films like this, that are spiritual, basically, but not set in 17th century Japan [laugh]. In the modern time. So hopefully we’ll be able to make that.
Not the next one, the next one is ‘The Irishman,’ which is De Niro and Joe Pesci and elderly gangsters. So that’ll be very different from ‘Silence.’ But maybe the one after that.”
She also spoke about the soft box-office and firmly believes it’s a film of Scorsese’s that people will properly discover at a later date:
“It’s daring and it’s difficult to make a movie like this because maybe people don’t understand why portuguese people speak english, and why japanese people also speak in english too, so they don’t go see it because of that. They worry. ‘Oh dear, what is this? Am I going to be lectured?’ They don’t understand that [‘Silence’] is not like that. It was a real serious challenge.
I wish it had done better. I think the movie will last and be very important to people. Which is all one can ask. So many fantastic movies, so many fantastic reactions from people. But if you’re going out with your family on Saturday night, you’re not going to go to this movie [laugh].
The reviews were… I’ve never read reviews like this. They’re just ecstatic sometimes, which is fantastic. All kinds of people, which is all you can hope for with this.”