Director Martin Scorsese has only just begun to dive into post-production on his financial drama The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, but he’s already looking ahead to his next project.  The filmmaker has been developing an adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s novel Silence for 15 years, and is now adamant that the 17th century Jesuit priest drama will be his next film.  Of course Scorsese said the same thing after wrapping Hugo, only to make Wolf of Wall Street his follow-up project instead (much to the chagrin of his investors).

Scorsese is apparently auditioning actors and looking to finally begin production on Silence in mid-2014, after the release (and presumably awards campaign) of Wolf of Wall Street this fall.  Silence isn’t the only project that Scorsese is actively developing to direct, though, and there was recently some forward movement on the mob drama The Irishman.  Hit the jump for more details.

In addition to Silence, a Frank Sinatra biopic, and a handful of other projects, Scorsese has also had his eye on directing an adaptation of the Charles Brandt book I Heard You Paint Houses for quite a while.  The book chronicles the life of mob hitman Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, who supposedly murdered Jimmy Hoffa.  Robert De Niro has long been attached to star in the film adaptation, The Irishman, with Joe Pesci and Al Pacino rumored to be involved, and Deadline reports that Scorsese recently held a reading of the Steven Zaillian script with De Niro, Pesci, and Pacino all in attendance.

Apparently Scorsese likes to hold these script readings in order “to make sure the picture is making proper progress.”  Paramount is onboard to produce the film, but other financiers were also in attendance at the reading who are looking to possibly invest in the film.  With Silence not getting underway until mid-2014, though, it sounds like the earliest we could see The Irishman going into production is sometime in 2015, likely in the latter half.  With this kind of pedigree, I'm inclined to believe the film will be well worth the wait.