Who wrote the screenplay for Martin Scorsese’s Silence with Jay Cocks?

Martin Scorsese co-wrote the screenplay for Silence with Jay Cocks.

The 2016 film was adapted from Shūsaku Endō’s 1966 novel Silence. Scorsese and Cocks developed the screenplay over many years before production began, making the project one of Scorsese’s longest-gestating films.

The story follows Portuguese Jesuit priests who travel to 17th-century Japan in search of their missing mentor. It explores faith, persecution, apostasy, cultural conflict, and the problem of divine silence. Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, and Liam Neeson lead the principal cast.

Jay Cocks had previously collaborated with Scorsese on Gangs of New York and The Age of Innocence. Silence was directed by Scorsese and written by both men, so attributing the screenplay solely to Cocks or solely to Endō would be inaccurate: Endō wrote the source novel, while Scorsese and Cocks wrote the film screenplay.