How a Jewish producer and Martin Scorsese joined forces to tell the stories of Catholic saints

In the middle of the night, Matti Leshem jolted awake with a fully formed idea.

He nudged his wife of 23 years awake to pitch the fresh idea for his next project. Leshem, a film and TV producer, would make a television series about the Catholic saints — with Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese.

“You don’t know Martin Scorsese,” she responded, irritated at being woken up.

“Well, how hard could that be?” Leshem said.

It was a challenge. Leshem tried for a year to get a meeting with Scorsese.

Then, on a random morning, one of Scorsese’s assistants called Leshem. If he could immediately head over to a nearby hotel, the assistant said he could get Leshem a 30-minute meeting with the director.

In an effort to make the most of his limited time, Leshem briefly introduced himself to Scorse