Shooting of Scorsese new film delayed after accident

TAIPEI: Hollywood director Martin Scorsese has postponed shooting his new film Silence in Taipei after an accident at the set killed one worker and injured three others, a producer said Friday.

Scorsese, who is currently in Taiwan, has yet to decided when Silence will start shooting after the original Friday start date was pushed back, said producer David Lee, who is working on the film.

"Director Scorsese felt terribly sorry about the tragedy. Some crew members and I expressed condolences to the family of the deceased and visited the wounded at the hospital yesterday on his behalf," Lee told AFP.

One man was killed and three others were wounded on Thursday when a ceiling collapsed on construction workers who were reinforcing an old brick-and-wood house during pre-production.

A worker was pronounced dead at the hospital while two were hospitalised for injuries to their legs and heads, according to the Taipei city fire department.

A fourth worker was also slightly wounded, but did not seek hospital treatment.

Silence, based on a novel by Shusaku Endo, tells the story of Portuguese Jesuits in the 17th Century who suffered persecution while working in isolated parts of Japan.

It will star Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver and will be released in cinemas in 2016.

Scorsese, the award-winning director of such movies as The Departed and Wolf of Wall Street, is the latest Hollywood heavyweight to film in Taiwan in recent years.

Taiwan-born, US-based director Ang Lee filmed his Oscar-winning 3D adventure Life of Pi on the island, and French director Luc Besson shot some of his sci-fi thriller Lucy in Taipei