You know how the old saying goes: "You win the Cecil B DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the Golden Globes and you can pretty much write your own ticket in Hollywood." And gosh darn it if plucky newcomer Marty Scorsese hasn't done just that, romping straight into the director's chair for The Invention Of Hugo Cabret.
All right, so Scorsese is neither a plucky newcomer, nor someone who needs a gong to opt for any film he wants. But he's definitely interested in the adaptation of Brian Selznick's kid lit novel, which finds a 12-year-old orphan living in a Paris train station during the post-World War Two era and trying to connect with his father's life by finishing pop's robot invention.
Marty's history with the tome stretches back to 2007, when he and producer Graham King first snatched up the rights. Since then, Scorsese's schedule filled up with more pressing projects and the job of bringing Hugo to life fell toIce Age/Robotsdirector Chris Wedge.
But today, Variety brings wordthat Wedge is off and Scorsese is back on, with the director apparently looking to make it his next job. Semi-regular Scorsese scriptwriter John Logan has worked on the adaption and given that it's an award-winning, 533-page tome filled with elaborate, evocative imagery, it's perfect for him. Think Amelie but instead of romance and good deeds it's about the history of cinema and surviving in a hostile world: what's not to love?