Worker dies in accident on Taiwanese film lot being prepared for Scorsese movie

A worker was killed in an accident Thursday at a Taiwanese film lot during preparations for the shooting of a new Martin Scorsese movie, media reports said.

Taiwan's Central News Agency said Chen Yu-lung was killed and two other men were injured when scaffolding around a building being torn down suddenly collapsed. All three were Taiwanese contractors hired by the film's producers.

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

The news agency said shooting had not yet begun on the movie, a historical drama titled "Silence" about two Jesuit priests in 17th century Japan, based on a 1966 novel by Japanese author Shusaku Endo. The cast includes Liam Neeson and Andrew Garfield of the "Amazing Spider-Man."

Scorsese is in Taiwan to shoot the film, but it wasn't known if he was on the lot.

A spokesman for the film could not immediately be contacted.

The website Deadline Hollywood quoted an unidentified representative of the film as saying that the contractors had been brought in to reinforce the building after it was deemed unsafe by the producers, and that the ceiling collapsed during the reinforcement, killing one worker and injuring two.