Hugo: The Shooting Script

2012 | Film & TV

Director Martin Scorsese, the legendary storyteller, decided to make his first-ever 3D film based on the Brian Selznick illustrated novel which he read four years ago, immediately connected to, and then shared with his youngest daughter. In reading books to my daughter, we re-experience the work. So it's like rediscovering the work of art again, but through the eyes of a child. He decided to turn to a different film format, and screenwriter John Logan was chosen to turn Selznick's words and illustrations and transform them into a screenplay. He had to cut and change some elements of the book, but, as Selznick says in his introduction: John performed a kind of magic trick. He took my story and turned it inside out. He turned it into a story that feels like it was always meant to be a movie, and yet he also took the time to celebrate books [and] all happens in the context of a gigantic, glorious, heartfelt, cinematic masterpiece just makes it all the more meaningful.

"Hugo" is the astonishing adventure of a wily and resourceful boy whose quest to unlock a secret left to him by his father will transform Hugo and all those around him, and reveal a safe and loving place he can call home. Scorsese has assembled an impressive acting ensemble comprised of rising new talent working alongside venerated stars of the stage and motion pictures, including Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Helen McCrory, Christopher Lee, Richard Griffiths, Frances De La Tour, Michael Stuhlbarg, and with Jude Law.

John Logan (Author)