Scorsese Film: Worker Dies On Set Of New Drama

One man has been killed and two others injured in an accident on a Taiwanese film lot being prepared for the shooting of a new Martin Scorsese film.

Chen Yu-lung was killed when scaffolding around a building being pulled down suddenly collapsed, Taiwan's Central News Agency said.

All three were Taiwanese contractors hired by the film's producers.

The lot belongs to the Chinese Culture and Movie Centre, which issued a statement saying the contracting film crew were responsible for health and safety in the accident.

Filming on the historical drama entitled Silence has not yet begun, the news agency said.

The film is based on a 1966 novel by Japanese author Shusaku Endo about two Jesuit priests in 17th Century Japan.

The cast includes Liam Neeson and Andrew Garfield of the Amazing Spider-Man.

While Scorsese is in Taiwan preparing to make the film, it is not known if he was on the lot when the accident happened.

A spokesman for the film could not immediately be contacted.

Deadline Hollywood website quoted an unidentified representative of the film as saying that the contractors had been brought in to reinforce the building after it was considered unsafe by the producers.

The site claimed the worker was killed and his colleague injured when the ceiling collapsed as it was being reinforced.