Selznick says 'Hugo Cabret' Film Is in Good Hands

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Joan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 5/12/2008 2:00:00 PM

Author Brian Selznick has expressed confidence that his The Invention of Hugo Cabret is in good hands, with the recent announcement that Ice Age and Robots director Chris Wedge will bring the Caldecott-winning book to the big screen.

John Logan, who wrote the screenplay for The Aviator and Sweeney Todd, has also signed on. Johnny Depp’s production company Infinitum Nihil is coproducing the film with Graham King’s Initial Entertainment Group for Warner Bros., Selznick says.

Selznick, who had many producers vying for the movie rights, went with Grey Rembert, vice president of development at the Graham King company, because, he says, Rembert was someone who understood the book and liked the book “very much and wanted to make a movie that’s true to the book.”

Since this will be the first live-action film by Wedge, Selznick says he’s excited to see how the director will incorporate his command of the latest movie-making technology into this Hugo Cabret, as well.

Earlier, it was reported that Martin Scorcese was a possible director for the movie version of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic, 2007), but Selznick says he is unsure what, if any, role the Oscar-winning director might ultimately play.

The author/illustrator says he has no information about casting or whether the film will be produced in color—considering that his book consists of his own black and white pen-and-ink drawings, strung together like the frames of a movie. “The possibility of a movie is very exciting,” Selznick says, “especially because it’s a book about movies. So, to get to see the story projected in a cinema is an intriguing idea.”

Hugo Cabret tells the story of a boy living alone in a Paris train station of the 1930s, and of his intriguing discovery. A fall start date is planned for the Warner Bros. film.