First trailer for Silence from Martin Scorsese

There's no doubt that the name Martin Scorsese rings loudly in the halls of cinematic achivement.

The 74 year old filmmaker has been one of the most influential voices around since he first started printing celluloid in the mid 60s. He finally picked up a Best Director Oscar for 2006's The Departed but a number of his previous films deserved the honour.

Since 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street he's released a documentary, a short film and worked on HBO's Vinyl for TV, showing no signs of slowing down and now he's back on the big screen with Silence.

It's a project he has been working on for more than 25 years, and the first trailer has finally arrived.

It's looking like particularly intense stuff, with a strong leading trio of actors in Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver. Those roles were originally set to be filled by Daniel Day-Lewis, Benico del Toro and Gael Garcia Bernal in a previous version, which would have given things a different vibe.

The film is based on a 1966 novel by Japanese author Shusaku Endo and has been adapted for the screen before in 1971. This version will be in US cinemas just before Christmas to qualify for those all important awards and arrives in Ireland on the 6th of January, 2017.