First trailer for new Scorsese film about Christian martyrs released

The first official trailer for Martin Scorsese's long-awaited film "Silence" has been released online this week.

The movie, based on the novel of the same name by Japanese author Shusaku Endo, follows the story of two 17th century Jesuit priests who went in search for their mentor in Japan, where Christianity is forbidden, Catholic Herald reported.

The cast includes Adam Driver, Andrew Garfield and Liam Neeson. In order to portray their roles with authenticity, the three actors lost significant amounts of weight in order to appear frail.

While the story is fictional, Neeson's character, Father Ferreira, is based on a historic Italian priest named Giuseppe Chiara, who served as a missionary in Japan during the same period.

The original novel focuses on the culling of Christian converts in Japan due to the concerns that the spread of the Gospel would lead to European colonization. Some Japanese Christians were tortured and told to renounce their faith while others were killed.

The release of the trailer comes just after news broke that the movie will premiere at the Vatican.

Scorsese had been keen on adapting Endo's novel to film since 1990 but the production had been delayed several times.

The award-winning director had been sued by Cecchi Gori Pictures several times for choosing to finish other films. In 2014, the film was suspended during pre-production in Taiwan due to lack of funds. The filming began in early 2015 after Fabrica de Cine and Moriah Media provided the capital.

In a 2013 interview with Deadline, Scorsese explained why making the film was so important to him.

"My initial interests in life were very strongly formed by what I took seriously at that time, and 45-50 years ago I was steeped in the Roman Catholic religion. As you get older, ideas go and come. Questions, answers, loss of the answer again and more questions, and this is what really interests me," he said.

"The very nature of secularism right now is really fascinating to me, but at the same time do you wipe away what could be more enriching in your life, which is an appreciation or some sort of search for that which is spiritual and transcends?" the director added.