MANILA, Philippines - Growing up in a section of New York City known as “Little Italy” in the ’40s and ’50s, a young Martin Scorsese found a deep connection inside the movie houses of the time — not just to the experience of viewing motion pictures, but also a closeness to his father, who sat with him in the darkened auditorium, fostering the future filmmaker’s love of the art form. So when Brian Selznick’s award-winning novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret landed on Scorsese’s desk, the Oscar-winning filmmaker found the tale profoundly resonant.
Scorsese remembers, “I was given the book about four years ago, and I sat down and read it completely, straight through. There was an immediate connection to the story of the boy, his loneliness, his association with the cinema, with the machinery of creativity. The mechanical objects in the film, including cameras, projectors and automatons, make it possible for Hugo to reconnect with his father.”
Scorsese adds, “It was particularly the vulnerability of a child alone that was striking. Hugo’s living in the walls of this giant engine of a sort — the train station — on his own, and he’s trying to make that connection with his father, whom he has lost.”
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.
Throughout his extraordinary career, Scorsese has brought his vision and gifts to life in a series of unforgettable films. In Hugo, which is also his first-ever 3D film, the legendary storyteller invites audiences to join him on a thrilling journey to a magical world.
Scorsese has assembled an impressive acting ensemble for Hugo, comprised of rising talents and venerated stars, like Ben Kingsley as Georges Melies, Sacha Baron Cohen as Station Inspector, Asa Butterfield as Hugo Cabret, Chloe Grace Moretz as Isabelle, Ray Winstone as Uncle Claude, Emily Mortimer as Lisette, Christopher Lee as Monsieur Labisse, among others.
Now showing in theaters nationwide, Hugo is a Paramount Pictures presentation and is distributed locally by United International Pictures through Solar Entertainment Corp.