The Last Temptation of Christ is a 1988 epic religious drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. Written by Paul Schrader with uncredited rewrites from Scorsese and Jay Cocks, it is an adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis ' controversial 1955 novel of the same name.

One of the movies he focused on was 1988's The Last Temptation of Christ, which starred Willem Dafoe as the titular religious figure. The story follows Jesus of Nazareth as he's caught between choosing what he wants and following God's plan for him. Other projects that were discussed include The Gospel According to St. Matthew and Silence.

Scorsese also talked about the meaning of his own controversial 1988 epic “The Last Temptation of Christ” and of “the subsequent step in his research on the figure of Jesus” represented by his smaller-scale 2016 drama “Silence” about the persecution of Jesuit Christians in 17th-century Japan. That film screened in 2016 at the Vatican.