The first available bit of "Shutter Island goodness" (expectedly) has me all hot and bothered

If you know me, I'm sure that you'd suspect Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds as my most-anticipated movie of '09, but then you, my friends, would be stricken by some false assumptions. Well, maybe not. I have rambled on and on here about how much I'm dying to see some Nazi-scalping and listen to Brad Pitt's Foghorn Leghorn accent, so I could understand. The more I think another high-profile flick coming later this year, though, I realize just how quickly I'd punch an old lady in the face across the street at Chelsea Square Park to catch an early screening of Martin Scorcese's Shutter Island (or, Ashecliffe, whichever he's calling it; I much prefer Shutter Island). For the unaware, Shutter Island is Scorcese's next tag-team with Leonardo Dicaprio, and it also stars Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach, bitches!), and Michelle Williams. Its an adaptation of Dennis Lehane's astoundingly-great novel, which still reigns supreme as my favorite novel of all time.

As of now, the flick is looking at an October release.

Simple plot breakdown (courtesy of Barone's World): Set in 1954, and Dicaprio plays a detective sent with his new partner (Ruffalo) to investigate a missing person case on a secluded island off the shores of Boston. Only, this island is actually a Riker's Island-like detention center for the criminally insane, and their "missing person" is a homicidal woman (Mortimer). The investigation itself becomes a royal pain in the ass, with lies, deceptions, mis-leads and other issues surfacing, but then all hell truly breaks loose once a freak storm traps the two detectives on the island, in the midst of an all-out riot.

I'd be a horse's ass if I said anything further, but I will tease with this: the book has such a captivating Gothic dread-power throughout, and it ultimately pimp-slaps the senses with some crazy Twilight Zone turns. I've read it twice now, and the novel literally went from "awesome" to "holy shit" for me. So having such mega-talents like Scorcese, Dicaprio, Ruffalo, Haley and Williams has me feeling all warmly confident inside, but not 100%---if you read the book, you'll understand my questioning of just how Scorcese will pull it all off visually and structurally. And the overall tone is much more quasi-supernatural than anything Marty S. has done before; not that I'm doubting the god Scorcese, of course. I'm just insanely curious.


A paparazzi shot, of sorts, caught during the film's production

There won't be a trailer for this one any time soon, I'm sure, but I've just come across something a bit cooler, only because it's not something you see everyday for films you love (or expect to love). Here are some storyboard illustrations for the production, drawn by a great artist named Karl Shelfelman. Pretty cool stuff. Shows you just what goes into some of a film's pre-production process:




Note to self: Must figure out how to expand this site's width for picture-posting benefits.

Storyboards (including a couple more not posted here) spotted over at: Rope of Silicon