While we’re not exactly fans of 3D, when somebody like Martin Scorsese — legendary filmmaker and movie history encyclopedia — decides to take a crack at it, we sit up and pay attention. Last summer, longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker said that Scorsese actually wasn’t that impressed by what he saw in “Avatar” and “Alice In Wonderland” and that he wanted to push the format further. So to say we’re curious is a bit of an understatement and we’re going to get to see it a bit sooner than expected.
Originally scheduled to hit theaters on December 9th, Deadline reports that the film has now moved up a couple of weeks to the very, very busy and competitive Thanksgiving weekend date of November 23rd. Opening the same weekend are the Todd Phillips produced comedy “Project X” and “Rise Of The Apes” with James Franco, but the stiffest battle “Hugo Cabret” will face will be against two other family films opening in the same frame. There’s the animated (and also 3D) “Arthur Christmas” as well as the star-studded “The Muppets” toplined by Jason Segel and Amy Adams. One is a holiday themed film, the other based on a beloved childhood staple and loaded with familiar faces. It will be fascinating to see how this plays out.
Led by Asa Butterfield and Chloë Moretz, with a starry cast including Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Kingsley, Christopher Lee, Emily Mortimer, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jude Law, Michael Stuhlbarg, Emily Mortimer, Ray Winstone, Frances de la Tour and Richard Griffiths, the film is an adaptation of Brian Selznick‘s best-selling children’s historical fiction book, “The Invention Of Hugo Cabret,” and the 1931-set film follows the story of the eponymous orphan boy living a secret life in the walls of a Paris train station. When Hugo encounters a broken machine, an eccentric girl, and the cold, reserved man who runs the toy shop, he is caught up in a magical, mysterious adventure that could put all of his secrets in jeopardy. Sounds like a lot of fun.
The film was originally set to be distributed by Sony, but when producers and financiers GK Films and Graham King wanted to move the release date, Paramount came in to handle the film when Sony balked (likely because they are also distributing “Arthur Christmas” which would create a major conflict of interest).