Scorseses Cabret gets cast

Not enticed by the promise of Martin Scorsese’s first foray into family film fare?

How about if Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen and Chloe Moretz were thrown into the mix? Ah, now there’s something to get intrigued by.

Fresh from working with Kingsley on Shutter Island , Scorsese has approached the thesping Brit to appear in his adaptation of the novel The Invention Of Hugo Cabret .

Kingsley would take on the significant role of George Méliès, the real innovative filmmaker who was responsible for the groundbreaking film A Trip To The Moon . It’s apparently a pivotal, sizeable role in the story.

Meanwhile, Sacha Baron Cohen would play the smaller part of the train station inspector who runs a Paris train station in the 1930s. There, an orphan boy by the name of Hugo Cabret (played by Boy In The Striped Pyjamas ’ Asa Butterfield) is living within the walls.

Moretz (above) would play the eccentric Isabelle, who runs a little toy booth in the station.

The involvement of Méliès as a character is perhaps the reason that Scorsese jumped at the chance to make Cabret , with the filmmaker having shown an interest in the director before. Small wonder he’s cast a huge talent in the role.

The director has yet to find funding or a distributor for the flick, but we imagine that with all these big names flying around, it won’t be long before somebody jumps at the bait.

Life is a Cabret old chum... Intrigued by this odd bunch?

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.