Scorsese bringing missionaries to Vancouver?

Production Weekly reports that Martin Scorsese is once again planning to shoot a film based on Shusaku Endo’s Silence:

“Silence” is set in sixteenth century Japan, where Portuguese missionaries must contend with traders from rival European nations and the persecution of Christians by Japanese feudal lords. The feudal lords want to drive Christianity out of Japan, and try to do so by torturing priests into apostasy, denying their faith. This is done symbolically by stepping on a “fumie,” a Christian image, like a picture of Mary or a crucifix. Two Portuguese priests, Sebastian Rodrigues and Francis Garrpe, make a dangerous journey to Japan, both to locate and comfort Japanese converts, and to discover the truth about a supposed apostate priest, Ferreira.

Somewhat bizarrely, Scorsese plans to shoot this film about Portuguese missionaries to Japan next summer … in Vancouver!

FWIW, I have not read Endo’s novel — yet — but I did see another film that covered this same historical episode at the Vancouver International Film Festival ten years ago, and I wrote the following blurb for the October 22, 1996 issue of ChristianWeek:

The Eyes of Asia, from Portuguese director Joao Mario Grilo, goes back to 17th century Japan to tell the story of Julian of Nakaura, a Japanese Jesuit priest who was tortured to death for refusing to renounce his faith. Grilo mixes the historical narrative with a modern “story” in which a European (Geraldine Chaplin) visits Nagasaki and learns the story of Julian’s martyrdom from the priests who keep his memory alive.

The cross-cutting between these two timeframes feels a little awkward at times, but Julian’s faith is treated respectfully … except, perhaps, for a curious epilogue which gives the last word to Cristovao Ferreira, the Jesuit provincial who succumbed to torture, renounced his faith, and spent the last 20 years of his life working for the shogun. In this last scene, Grilo seems to question whether the Jesuits should have ever come to Japan in the first place, despite the obvious joy he lets Julian show in his Christian faith.

Incidentally, the IMDB indicates that Silence has been filmed once before, as a Japanese film, in 1971. But is it available anywhere?