After Martin Scorsese saw success with a run of acclaimed films leading up to his first Oscar winner “Raging Bull” in 1980, the director thought he could take some time to pursue a topic that fascinated him since childhood. “I thought why not go to the stories of saints?” Scorsese said at a recent panel discussion in New York. At the time, Scorsese saw Italian directors doing nonfiction takes on scholarly subjects for television and wanted in.
“I tried,” he said. “And I wound up getting sucked into making movies again.” But deferred dreams never die in the streaming era, where emerging platforms are hungry for content that can put them on the map.
Forty-four years after first considering the concept, “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” makes its debut Sunday on Fox Nation, the streamer owned and operated by Fox News Media, the conservative-leaning Fox News Channel’s parent organization. Scorsese is executive producer and on-camera narrator of the series, which was created by Matti Leshem and written by Kent Jones. A new episode debuts weekly with the first four providing critical looks at Joan of Arc , John the Baptist, Sebastian and Maximilian Kolbe.
A second set is scheduled to launch around the Easter season in April 2025 with portrayals of Francis of Assisi, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene and Moses the Black. Scorsese has been drawn to saints since his days growing up in Lower Manhattan in the 1940s and 50s. He attended elementary school at St.
Pat.