The Invention of Hugo Cabret

So if you know me personally you will know how much I love Marting Scorsese. The man is a complete genius. Even at his worst he is still better than just about any other existing filmmaker. He has made some of the greatest films ever made....Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, The Departed, and Shutter Island just to name a few.

The man is a film purest. He is all about restoring old films so they don't get lost and people can still enjoy them. I would say confidently that there is not a single human being on this planet that knows more about film history than Scorsese (yes that includes you Quentin Tarantino...). So when I first heard that Marty was making a film in 3D....I was a lot of things, among them were shocked, stunned, annoyed and maybe a little hurt.

For months I refused to believe that Scorsese would sink to such gimmicks and shenanigans. I could not possibly picture 3D in the dark hard world that most Scorsese movies encompass. But then I recently found out what he is actually doing.

The film is called "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" its starring Chloe Moretz (500 Days of Summer, Kick-Ass, and the upcoming vampire remake, Let Me In) Ben Kingsley is also teaming up again with Scorsese (he recently was in Shutter Island) and Sacha Baron Cohen.

From what I understand it is about an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station in 1930's Paris but is in the possession of a robot that her late father was working on fixing. The orphan knows little about her father and even less about what the robot actually does, yet she is trying to fix and repair it just as her father was and the orphan gets wrapped up in the mystery of it all. Its based on a book by Brian Selznick.

From what I know of the book (I haven't yet read it but Its now on my waiting list of books to be read) Its very visual and what Scorsese wants to do is kind of make the book come literally alive (much like what was attempted with Polar Express, only without the lifeless motion capture animation and obnoxious Aerosmith elves singing....)

Scorsese said it will be a much more visual film with less dialogue. But also what he wants to do is make the picture pop out at you a lot more than recent 3D endeavors have allowed. What makes this so interesting though is Scorsese has never done a film that kids could see and as I understand it...that's what this is. I don't know that it is directed at kids per say but still its different ground for the man. Ive heard it involves old classic film stuff and that is perfect for the great film preservationist Scorsese....to say the least it will be very interesting to see what comes of this film. Its set for a release date sometime in 2011. I'll post more info as I get it!