Movie News: Borat and Gandhi Join Scorsese’s Next Film, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret"

Movie News

Borat and Gandhi Join Scorsese’s Next Film, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret"

By our guest blogger, Tim Strain

Last week saw a slew of casting updates for Martin Scorsese’s next film, the adaptation of the bestselling children’s book “The Invention of Hugo Cabret.” Brits Sacha Baron Cohen and Sir Ben Kingsley (“Thunderbirds”) have joined the cast, and will be alongside youngsters Chloe Moretz and Asa Butterfield.

Butterfield is best known for his work in 2008’s “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” and will appear in theaters this fall in Matt Reeves’s horrendous-in-theory “Let Me In,” the remake of the superb 2008 vampire thriller “Let the Right One In.” He will play the titular role. Moretz raised some eyebrows with her surprisingly mature performance as JoGoLev’s sassy sister in “(500) Days of Summer” and has been earning raves for her work in the upcoming “Kick-Ass.” She will play the lead female character, Isabelle

This is the second consecutive collaboration with Kingsley for Scorsese after last month’s “Shutter Island,” in which Kingsley is, of course, excellent. He will be playing French film icon George Méliès. Cohen will play the conductor of the train station that Hugo lives in. It is his first collaboration with Scorsese, and God only knows how they will work together, with Cohen’s penchant for insane improvisation and Scorsese’s down-to-business approach. I can’t wait.

“Hugo Cabret” revolves around a boy who secretly lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station looking after the clocks and gets caught up in a mystery adventure when he attempts to repair a mechanical man. During his time in the station he encounters the station conductor as well as, of all people, Méliès. It will shoot in Paris in May and is set for a 2011 release.