Production started in London recently on Martin Scorsese’s first ever fantasy film (not to mention his first 3D flick), Hugo Cabret, and according to THR the director is still adding new members to the cast. Emily Mortimer reunites with Scorsese following Shutter Island, while A Single Man’s Michael Stuhlbarg has also signed onto the film. Like Mortimer, Stuhlbarg has some recent Scorsese experience, as he appears in the pilot episode of the upcoming HBO series Boardwalk Empire, which the Taxi Driver filmmaker directed.
Adapted from Brian Selznick’s best-seller The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the film ‘centres on Hugo (Asa Butterfield), an orphan boy living a secret life in the walls of a Paris train station. When he encounters a broken machine, an eccentric girl (Chloe Moretz) and a cold, reserved man (Ben Kingsley) who runs a toy shop, he is caught up in a magical, mysterious adventure that could put all of his secrets in jeopardy.’
Mortimer is set to play the station’s flower shop girl, Lisette, while Stuhlbarg is Rene Tabard, a film restorer. They join a rather impressive cast that also includes Sacha Baron Cohen, Jude Law, Christopher Lee and Ray Winstone.
Hugo Cabret is due out next year, and it’ll certainly be interesting to see how Scorsese fares in the family arena, although as the story is one for cinema lover, he should be okay.