The Invention of Hugo Cabret
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a historical-fiction book written and illustrated by Brian Selznick and published by Scholastic Press. The hardcover edition was released on January 30, 2007, and the paperback edition was released on June 2, 2008. With 284 pictures between the book's 533 pages, the book depends equally on its pictures as it does the actual words. Selznick himself has described the book as "not exactly a novel, not quite a picture book, not really a graphic novel, or a flip book or a movie, but a combination of all these things." the first novel to do so, as the Caldecott Medal is for picture books.
The book’s primary inspiration is the true story of turn-of-the-century French pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès, his surviving films, and his collection of mechanical, wind-up figures called automata. Selznick decided to add automata to the storyline after reading Edison's Eve by Gaby Wood, which tells the story of Edison's attempt to create a talking wind up doll. Méliès actually had a set of automata, which were either sold or lost. At the end of his life Méliès was broke, even as his films were screening widely in the United States. He did work in a toy booth in a Paris railway station, hence the setting. Selznick drew Méliès's real door in the book.
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Characters
Hugo Cabret
Hugo is a 12-year-old orphan who lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station where he works as a clock keeper. In order to survive, he also steals food.
Isabelle
Isabelle is an orphan who lives with Georges Méliès, her godfather. She accompanies Hugo on most of his adventure.
Movie adaptation
Martin Scorsese bought the screen rights to the book in 2007, and John Logan wrote the script. Scorsese began shooting the movie in London at Shepperton Studios in June 2010. It is produced in 3D, and its theatrical release was on November 23, 2011 by distributor Paramount Pictures. Asa Butterfield plays the lead role of Hugo, with Chloë Grace Moretz as Isabelle, Sacha Baron Cohen as the station inspector and Ben Kingsley as Papa Georges. Jude Law, Richard Griffiths, Ray Winstone, Christopher Lee, Frances de la Tour and Helen McCrory also star.
