Martin Scorsese’s psychological thriller “Shutter Island” is less than two weeks away (it arrives February 19) and people already want to know what’s next.
Well, we already know, but if you need a reminder, the 67-year-old director will be making his first kids movie; an adaptation of Brian Selznick’s best-selling children’s historical fiction book “The Invention Of Hugo Cabret” set in 1930s Paris (a project Paramount bought the rights to for him in 2007). Of course, since it’s Scorsese, it probably won’t be just your average kids film. As he told the New York Times this weekend, every project he thinks will be simple and straight forward initially, takes on layers, depth and much more intensity than he ever initially envisioned. Take “Shutter Island,” which he said originally started out simply and, “started out as an entertainment, though I guess I don’t really know how to do that. It always seems to become something else. ‘The Departed’ was that way too,” he sighed, perhaps resigned to the idea that all his projects will be dark and weighty.
But afterwards? Scorsese has a ton of projects in development, but in speaking to the French press for “Shutter Island” he unveiled his upcoming timetable and it seems like Leonard DiCaprio will have a few years off and the ghost of Frank Sinatra can rest easy… for now.
So, following, ‘Hugo Cabret’ will be his long-awaited 17th century Jesuit Priest drama, “Silence” that was set to star Daniel Day-Lewis, Benicio Del Toro and Gael Garcia Bernal. “Everything was ready for ‘Silence’,” Scorsese said, confirming reports from last year that the picture would shoot this spring. “But the film was shifted to be shot immediately after this project [Hugo Cabret].”
Again, things change, but then Scorsese says, “so hopefully, ‘Silence’ and then a project with Robert De Niro, ‘The Irishman,’ it is [an] interesting [path] ‘Silence’ and ‘The Irishman.’
Wait, the “Irishman” what’s that you say? Well, actually, it’s the mob drama, “I Heard You Paint Houses” which Scorsese might just have confirmed has changed titles. “I Heard You Paint Houses” is apparently mob slang for contract killings and DeNiro’s character in the film is named Frank “the Irishman” Sheeran, who is reputed to have carried out more than 25 mob murders. When it was reported in early 2008, the writer on the project was Steve Zaillian (“American Gangster,” the original draft of “Moneyball”).
So that’s projects one, two and three next, but that’s probably not counting his George Harrison documentary which is mostly completed, and the director has already said is set for release this year and may or may not be released theatrically.
About ‘Hugo Cabret’ he says, “For children. I think the film will be presented as a family film, but it is a film about a child. There is a difference. That does not necessarily mean that everything must be created or formatted for children. It is first a child, a boy of ten years.”
A rumored Roosevelt biopic? He says no, he’ll only produce to help get it made, but “Sinatra” will eventually happen. The [Roosevelt] script by Nick Meyer is excellent but I think I’ll help that the film [gets] produced. Work on ‘Sinatra’… is [in] the second stage of writing. We had a meeting two weeks ago. The Sinatra [picture] is for real.”