With all the gossip about **Sinatra, this slipped our minds for a little while. But here to remind us is a press release from Sony (via Coming Soon) with the glorious news that Martin Scorsese has started filming his adaptation of Brian Selznick's **The Invention of Hugo Cabret.
Hugo Cabret (as we're now apparently to call it) stars Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield and Chloe Moretz. And as if that wasn't enough, there'll also be support from Jude Law, Ray Winstone, Christopher Lee, Helen McRory, Frances De La Tour, and Uncle Monty himself, Richard Griffiths. Just as well Marty is filming in 3D: he'll need the extra space to fit everyone in.
Scorsese's involvement with bringing the book to the screen goes back a few years. He picked up the rights in 2007, then handed the reigns to Chris Wedge a year or so later, only to retrieve them a few months ago.
Selznick's beautiful, heavily illustrated, not-quite kids' tome is about the orphaned Hugo, living in 1930s Paris in the roof of the Gare Montparnasse, where he tends the clock whilst trying to repair an automaton left him by his father. A tender and affecting relationship drama as well as a cracking adventure and mystery, it's also intricately tied up with the history of cinema, with Georges Melies playing a major role. No wonder it appealed to the cinephile Scorsese.
The production is rounded out by previous Marty collaborators, from screenwriter John Logan (The Aviator) to production designer Dante Ferretti (Shutter Island). Shooting has just started in London, but a large proportion will take place in Paris. A date in late 2011 is pencilled into Sony's release schedule.