Martin Scorsese‘s upcoming “A Life of Jesus” film does not currently have a production start date, but viewers won’t have to wait long for a different project about the filmmaker’s Catholic faith. Scorsese is turning his attention to a group of religious icons for Fox Nation original streaming series, “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints.”
Scorsese hosts, narrates, and executive produces the docudrama show, which will release weekly through December 8. Per the official press release, the series will be unveiled in two parts, with the final four episodes airing in April 2025 to be “spanning the Holy season.”
Each episode focuses on a singular saint. The premiere episode centers on Joan of Arc. Additional episodes will include John the Baptist, Sebastian, Maximilian Kolbe, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, and Moses the Black. The series will encompass 2,000 years of history to tell the story of “eight men and women who risked everything to embody humanity’s most noble and complex trait — faith.”
“I’ve lived with the stories of the saints for most of my life, thinking about their words and actions, imagining the worlds they inhabited, the choices they faced, the examples they set,” Scorsese said in a press statement. “These are stories of eight very different men and women, each of them living through vastly different periods of history and struggling to follow the way of love revealed to them and to us by Jesus’ words in the gospels. I’m so excited that this project is underway, and that I’m working with so many trusted and talented collaborators.”
The show was announced in March 2024. Scorsese developed the series for Lionsgate Alternative Television. Matti Leshem is the creator of the docuseries; frequent Scorsese collaborator Kent Jones writes it. Elizabeth Chomko directs.
“Having the greatest storyteller tell some of the greatest stories of all time is exactly the kind of exclusive content that is driving Fox Nation’s success,” Jason Klarman, the Fox News Media chief digital and marketing officer, added in a statement. “It’s an honor to welcome the world-renowned Martin Scorsese to the Fox Nation platform.”
Scorsese and Leshem serve as executive producers alongside Julie Yorn, Rick Yorn, Christopher Donnelly, Yoshi Stone, Craig Piligian, David Ellender, and Matt Loze. In addition to Lionsgate, the series was produced by Sikelia Productions, Weimaraner Republic Pictures, LBI Entertainment, and Halcyon Studios.
As per its official description, Fox Nation is an entertainment streaming service with “unmatched access to exclusive shows featuring your favorite FOX hosts and unapologetically patriotic content.”
While Scorsese has yet to announce his next feature film, he has a variety of projects in development including the nautical epic “The Wager” at Apple and his long-rumored Frank Sinatra biopic.
“I’m not saying goodbye to cinema at all,” Scorsese said during the 2024 Turin Film Festival, via The Hollywood Reporter. “I still have more films to make, and I hope God gives me the strength to make them.”
“Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” premieres November 17 on Fox Nation. Check out the trailer below.
Here is the full list of “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” episodes.
Episode one: Joan of Arc (November 17th) Premiering with Liah O’Prey as Joan of Arc, the docudrama begins with the story of the Hundred Years’ War and how a devout 17-year-old daughter of small-town farmers somehow inspired the French army to break the siege of Orleans after St. Catherine, St. Margaret and St. Michael appeared to her. A fiery leader who promised to drive the English out of France, Joan’s role helped bring about the coronation of King Charles VII, and end the long, bloody conflict. After being captured in 1430 and turned over to the English, she was accused of heresy and witchcraft by Catholic Clergy sympathetic to the English cause. She was then tried by an ecclesiastical court that despised her, intimidated and threatened her. Remaining steadfast in her beliefs, she was ultimately burned at the stake with only her heart remaining unscathed in the embers. Twenty-five years after her death, Joan of Arc was given a new trial and her sentence annulled. Sainthood would take nearly 500 years, when she was finally canonized in 1920. Today, she is the patron saint of soldiers.
Episode two: John the Baptist (November 24th) Yahya Mahayni takes on the role of John the Baptist in the second episode, which explores the first century of Galilee when Judea is under Roman rule and a puppet ruler named Herod Antipas holds power. While the aristocratic Pharisees and Sadducees kowtow to Antipas, the rank-and-file Jews of the era long for delivery from foreign oppression and for salvation. It is here, John the Baptist, son of a Levite, a member of the priestly class, walks away from his father’s traditions and begins to proclaim the coming of the Messiah, baptizing new followers and urging them to repent. He even baptizes Jesus, and recognizes that he is the fulfillment of the prophecy. When John publicly decries Antipas for stealing his brother’s wife and marrying her, a grave sin in Jewish tradition, he is arrested and imprisoned. Antipas’ wife and step-daughter, Herodias and Salome, are scandalized by the accusation and want him executed, but Antipas will not order his death. Until a feast is thrown in Antipas’ honor and beautiful young Salome does a dance so enrapturing that Antipas says he’ll grant her anything she wishes. The young princess asks for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. John the Baptist was the voice crying out in the wilderness, the one who made the path straight and prepared the way for Jesus. Today, he is the patron saint of converts.
Episode three: Sebastian (December 1st) Lorenzo De Moor brings viewers to the twilight years of the Roman Empire, as the humble soldier named Sebastian who served in the Praetorian Guard under the Emperor Diocletian. The Empire is in decline and Diocletian is looking to restore it to glory by going back to the old ways, including an edict that none but the Roman gods are to be worshiped. Little does Diocletian know that Sebastian is secretly a devout Christian when he orders that all Christians be forced to convert to paganism or be tortured and killed. At first, Sebastian works in secret to protect Christians and to continue to spread the faith. But as he converts more and more Romans to Christianity, he is finally caught and brought before the Emperor. Sebastian is sentenced to death, tied to a tree, and shot full of arrows by his fellow Praetorian Guardsmen. He’s left for dead, but later that night a fellow Christian finds him miraculously still alive. She brings him home and tends to his wounds until he has recovered enough strength not to run away, but once again to confront Diocletian and beg him to embrace Christianity, which results in him being beaten to death. Sebastian is essentially martyred twice for his faith, and today he is the patron saint of athletes and archers.
Episode four: Maximilian Kolbe (December 8th) Part one of the series concludes with Milivoje Obradović as Maximiliam Kolbe, the Franciscan monk who martyred himself to save a fellow prisoner at Auschwitz. Born in Poland at the turn of the 20th century to devout parents, Kolbe’s views on Judaism were marred by the prevailing antisemitic rhetoric of the time, the same virulent hate that gave rise to Nazi ideologies as well. But his treatment of individual Jews did not reflect the same antisemitism. In 1941, his monastery near Krakow was housing 3,000 people displaced by the Nazis during World War II, half of them were Jewish. When the Third Reich invaded Poland, he was arrested and sent to Auschwitz, where he was subjected to backbreaking slave labor. When a man in his barracks escaped, 10 men were selected to starve to death as a punishment. Despite being spared, Kolbe offered to take the place of one of the prisoners – a stranger. Kolbe and nine other men were thrown into a small concrete bunker and forced to slowly starve. Throughout the torture, Kolbe offered support and encouragement to his fellow prisoners, Jews and Catholics alike, firmly anchored to the power of hope. At the end of the second week, everyone was dead – everyone except for Kolbe and one fellow prisoner. The guards inject the men with carbolic acid, killing them instantly. When Kolbe was canonized in 1982, the man he chose to die in place of, Franciszek Gajowniczek, was in attendance. Today, Maximilian Kolbe is the patron saint of prisoners.
