Baron Cohen, Kingsley Join Scorsese's 'Hugo Cabret'

It seemed like a strange project for Martin Scorsese when it was announced, and now the 3-D adaptation of The Invention of Hugo Cabret got slightly more odd. Deadline reports that in addition to directing what might wind up being a movie for kids, Scorsese will work with Sacha Baron Cohen. The book was published in 2007 and was a finalist for a National Book Award. It's about a 12-year-old boy who works in the walls of a Paris train station in between the two world wars. That's partially inspired by the life of pioneering filmmaker Georges Méliès, who worked in a Paris train station selling toys, but not as a boy. He did that after he went bankrupt making movies. Méliès' films also figure into the book. That's probably how Scorsese entered the equation, actually. Deadline made the casting announcement earlier, with Baron Cohen seated as the station inspector. Ben Kingsley, late of the director's Shutter Island, has also joined the cast as Méliès himself. You know that old black and white film of the rocket slamming into the moon, only the moon is some guy's face? Georges Méliès. The movie's called La Voyage dans la Lune. There's no distributor for the film yet, though Graham King, who has been a Scorsese collaborator for some time, is producing. Because of that, Deadline believes it will probably wind up at Sony, since King inked a deal with the studio late last year. The script for i>The Invention of Hugo Cabret is by John Logan, who also wrote The Aviator, and it's actually Marty's second time on board this project.