Cinephile eyebrows had been raised earlier this yr when Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese introduced that he’d partnering with Fox Information Media’s streaming service, Fox Nation, for his new TV enterprise, Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints. However the present’s govt producer, Matti Leshem, characterizes the unlikely partnership as a match made in… properly, heaven.
“Fox Nation has been extremely supportive,” Leshem tells TVNewser about his and Scorsese’s working relationship with the streamer, which premieres the primary half of the eight-episode docudrama on Nov. 17. Every of the hour-long installments dramatizes the life and occasions of a Catholic Church-beatified saint starting from fifteenth century warrior Joan of Arc to twentieth century friar Maximilian Kolbe. The remaining 4 episodes will stream within the spring, with the potential for further seasons to return.
Nonetheless, Leshem understands if religious Scorsese disciples have combined emotions about subscribing to a streaming platform that’s related to a conservative-leaning information community. That’s why he stresses the significance of nuance—one thing that may get misplaced when discussing loaded matters like politics and religion within the nation’s present local weather.
“Look, Fox Nation just isn’t Fox Information,” Leshem emphasizes. “It’s a extremely vital distinction. Fox Nation is a streaming platform that has all types of programming on it. Particularly right now in America, it’s vital for everybody to maintain an open thoughts.”
And when you’re nonetheless on the fence, Leshem has a streaming-era gross sales pitch able to go. “Should you’re within the present, pattern it by downloading Fox Nation for $5.99,” he advises with amusing. “And Should you don’t prefer it, cancel it! You possibly can join one of many 18 different subscription companies that I presently have.”
The story of how The Saints ended up at Fox Nation within the first place is so simple as a parable: They wished to make it. Getting that “sure” capped a seven-year journey for Leshem and Scorsese—though the latter has dreamed of telling tales in regards to the saints for even longer.
