Scorsese to shoot kids’ film in 3D; elsewhere, pigs fly
Scorsese to shoot kids’ film in 3D; elsewhere, pigs fly
Apr 14
I knew there wasn’t something quite right about the universe this morning. Maybe it was the pitch of the cat’s meow as it woke me up before my alarm, maybe it’s because there’s been precisely zero interesting news all day, maybe it’s because it’s the cat’s birthday today, but ever since waking to the plaintive howling of said pet I’ve felt a little out of sorts.
I now know why.
It’s been rumoured that Martin Scorsese’s next film might happen to be Brian Selznick’s The Invention Of Hugo Cabret, a children’s book about about … children doing something, or whatever, but today it’s finally been confirmed. I never really paid attention to the project partly because it’s an adaptation of a children’s book but mostly because — well just look at the title: it doesn’t make sense. Is Hugo Cabret the object that is to be invented? Is Hugo Cabret the mechanical man mentioned in the synopsis? If it’s Hugo Cabret that’s doing the inventing, there needs to be an apostrophe and an s at the end of that sentence, to demonstrate ownership, otherwise it doesn’t make sense. Who is Hugo Cabret and who is inventing him? What a grammatical mystery! Time for a quick synopsis, I think:
ORPHAN, CLOCK KEEPER, AND THIEF, twelve-year-old Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric girl and the owner of a small toy booth in the train station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message all come together…in The Invention of Hugo Cabret.
This 526-page book is told in both words and pictures. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is not exactly a novel, and it’s not quite a picture book, and it’s not really a graphic novel, or a flip book, or a movie, but a combination of all these things. Each picture (there are nearly three hundred pages of pictures!) takes up an entire double page spread, and the story moves forward because you turn the pages to see the next moment unfold in front of you.
Hey, that sounds pretty neat, though it doesn’t help with the invention / inventor dilemma of the title’s ambiguous grammar. However: “There are nearly three hundred pages of pictures!” so I guess it can’t be all bad.
So anyway, Martin Scorsese, he of the classical style of filmmaking, is planning to shoot Hugo Cabret in 3D. He’s recently expressed his support of the format, but complained that movies like Precious should be shot in 3D, not just big dumb blockbusters. In that I agree with him — if anyone wants 3D to stick around longer than a few years, they need to make good movies in the format, not spectacle movies. There hasn’t been a single 3D film yet released that has warranted its third-dimensional status, so I’m still sceptical about the format.
This news is bad for a couple of reasons. Scorsese has a very particular shooting style, and utilising the digital 3D format will kill a lot of the colour, contrast and lighting he tends to use to help his frame ‘pop.’ 3D cameras are large and bulky and not very mobile, so Scorsese’s style will be hampered by physical restrictions (no Copacabana-style tracking shot, for instance). And being that the source book is aimed at the 9 – 12 year-old demographic, the movie will probably be marketed as such as well, deterring adults from seeing the movie and thus preventing a potentially good 3D movie from getting its hooks into the brains of those that matter — those with the money.
I’m not against 3D on principle, it’s just that it’s failed to produce any movies worth the additional price and eyestrain brought on by the format. Additionally, I’m not big on kids’ films, even if they’re headlined by the name “Martin Scorsese,” and even if the cast does include the likes of Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Kingsley, and Chloe Moretz (from Kick-Ass), as does The Invention Of Hugo Cabret. It’ll definitely be interesting to see what Scorsese does with the format, and the genre, but until we at least get a trailer or poster or something, colour me suspicious about this whole affair.
The Invention Of Hugo Cabret starts shooting in London in June 2010; expect the finished film to hit screens on the 9th of December, 2011
While you’re here, as a quick follow-up to yesterday’s 3D TV article, Samsung have relased an amusing viral ad that appears to satirise the 3D industry in general. At least, I hope it’s meant to be satirical, otherwise it’s eye-rollingly stupid. See for yourself:
