Fox Nation links with Martin Scorsese for religious docudrama

Martin Scorsese (Source: CC. Harald Krichel)

Fox Nation has partnered with Martin Scorsese for an eight-part religious docuseries that will explore eight men and women who risked their lives for their faith.

Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints is being developed by the Goodfellas director for Lionsgate Alternative Television, with Sikelia Productions, Weimaraner Republic Pictures, LBI Entertainment and Halcyon Studios also attached.

The show will premiere in two parts, with the first four episodes set to release on Sunday, 16 November, and the final set to conclude in May 2025, spanning the Holy season.

It will track over 2,000 years of history throughout nearly every continent, with episodes focusing on a singular Saint, including Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian, and Maximillian Kolbe, examining these figures and their acts of kindness, selflessness and sacrifice.

The show has been created by Matti Leshem and will be written by Kent Jones, who frequently collaborates with Scorsese, and directed by Elizabeth Chomko. Additional executive producers alongside Scorsese and Leshem include Halcyon duo David Ellender and Matt Loze, as well as Julie Yorn, Rick Yorn, Christopher Donnelly, Yoshi Stone and Craig Piligian.

Scorsese said: “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.

“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.”