Scorsese Snaps Up Hugo Cabret

By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 1/25/2008 12:51:00 PM

Now that Brian Selznick has a Caldecott-Medal under his belt for The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic), could an Oscar be in the cards? Academy Award-winning director, writer, and producer Martin Scorsese has already bought the movie rights to the book, but the writer’s strike is holding things up, says radio talk show host Bob Edwards, who interviewed Selznick on January 25.

Selznick is no stranger to the big screen. His grandfather was a cousin of David Selznick, one of the icons of the Golden Age who was best known for producing the epic blockbuster Gone with the Wind (1939), starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. 

“He’s happy to be returning the Selznick name to Hollywood,” says Edwards, who hosts the Bob Edwards Show on XM Radio. 

Selnick’s Hugo Cabret, about a boy living inside a Paris train station in the 1930s, is the first novel to take the prize for the most distinguished American picture book for children. The 533-page novel, which won the Caldecott on January 14, uniquely advances its plot by offering page after page of detailed drawings, akin to the frames of a movie reel.

Scorsese, who has directed close to 50 films, nabbed an Academy Award for best director in 2006 for The Departed.