Shutter Island is an upcoming
AmericanThe cinema of the United States has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
thrillerThriller is a broad genre of literature, film, television, and gaming that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains...
directed by
Martin ScorseseMartin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. He is the founder of the World Cinema Foundation, a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema and has won awards from the Oscars, Golden Globe,...
and starring
Leonardo DiCaprioLeonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer whose career rose with his role in the television sit-com Growing Pains....
. The film is based on the 2003 novel
of the same nameShutter Island is a 2003 novel written by Dennis Lehane. A film adaptation of the novel directed by Martin Scorsese was scheduled for release in October of 2009 but was pushed back until February 2010.-Premise:...
by
Dennis LehaneDennis Lehane is an American author. He has written several award-winning novels, including A Drink Before the War and the New York Times bestseller Mystic River, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film...
. Production started in March 2008;
Shutter Island was originally slated to be released on October 2, 2009, but Paramount recently announced that it was going to push the film towards a mid-February release in 2010.
In 1954, two U.S. marshals investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane on an island in
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
.
Shutter Island is an upcoming
AmericanThe cinema of the United States has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
thrillerThriller is a broad genre of literature, film, television, and gaming that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains...
directed by
Martin ScorseseMartin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. He is the founder of the World Cinema Foundation, a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema and has won awards from the Oscars, Golden Globe,...
and starring
Leonardo DiCaprioLeonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer whose career rose with his role in the television sit-com Growing Pains....
. The film is based on the 2003 novel
of the same nameShutter Island is a 2003 novel written by Dennis Lehane. A film adaptation of the novel directed by Martin Scorsese was scheduled for release in October of 2009 but was pushed back until February 2010.-Premise:...
by
Dennis LehaneDennis Lehane is an American author. He has written several award-winning novels, including A Drink Before the War and the New York Times bestseller Mystic River, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film...
. Production started in March 2008;
Shutter Island was originally slated to be released on October 2, 2009, but Paramount recently announced that it was going to push the film towards a mid-February release in 2010.
Plot
In 1954, two U.S. marshals investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane on an island in
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
. They run into trouble when they are deceived by the hospital's chief administrator, a hurricane hits and an inmate riot traps them on the island.
Production
Feature film rights to the 2003 novel
Shutter IslandShutter Island is a 2003 novel written by Dennis Lehane. A film adaptation of the novel directed by Martin Scorsese was scheduled for release in October of 2009 but was pushed back until February 2010.-Premise:...
by
Dennis LehaneDennis Lehane is an American author. He has written several award-winning novels, including A Drink Before the War and the New York Times bestseller Mystic River, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film...
were first optioned to
Columbia PicturesColumbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
in 2003, but the rights lapsed back to the author. The author's representatives then sold the rights to the production company Phoenix Pictures, who hired screenwriter
Laeta KalogridisLaeta Kalogridis is a screenwriter. She has written scripts for Alexander , Night Watch , Pathfinder and Shutter Island . She has also served as an executive producer for the television series Birds of Prey and Bionic Woman...
to script the novel for a film adaptation. The project was in development for a year. By October 2007, the project had developed into a co-production between the studios
Columbia PicturesColumbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
and
Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures Corporation is a Worldwide American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is the world's oldest existing American film studio; it is also the last...
. Director
Martin ScorseseMartin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. He is the founder of the World Cinema Foundation, a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema and has won awards from the Oscars, Golden Globe,...
and actor
Leonardo DiCaprioLeonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer whose career rose with his role in the television sit-com Growing Pains....
, who had worked together on three films, were both attracted to
Shutter Island as their next collaboration. Locations like
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
,
ConnecticutConnecticut is a state in the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and New York to the west and south ....
, and
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is a Canadian province located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. Its capital, Halifax, is a major economic centre of the region. Nova Scotia is the second-smallest province in Canada with an area of...
were scouted. Production began on March 6, 2008.
Production took place in
Taunton, MassachusettsTaunton is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the seat of Bristol County and the hub of the Greater Taunton Area. The city is located 40 miles south of Boston, 18 miles east of Providence, 18 miles north of Fall River and 25 miles west of Plymouth...
to film
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
flashback scenes of DiCaprio's character, a former soldier. Scorsese filmed the scenes in old industrial buildings in Taunton's
Whittenton Mills ComplexWhittenton Mills Complex is a historic mill at Mill River and Whittenton Street in Taunton, Massachusetts.The mill was built in 1805 and added to the National Historic Register in 1984.-See also:...
, which replicated the
Dachau concentration campDachau concentration camp was the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Germany, located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria which is located in southern Germany.Opened in March 1933, it...
. Extras portraying the Dachau prisoners were called back to reshoot a scene in July, due to the film of one scene being damaged due to an improperly sealed film shipping container. Scenes were filmed at the old
Medfield State HospitalMedfield State Hospital is a historic mental hospital at 45 Hospital Road in Medfield, Massachusetts.The hospital was built in 1892. At its height it included 58 buildings, on a property of some 900 acres, and a capacity of 2200 patients. It raised its own livestock and produce, and generated its...
in
Medfield, MassachusettsMedfield is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,677 at a 2008 estimate.For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated place Medfield, please see the article Medfield , Massachusetts....
.
Peddocks IslandPeddocks Island is one of the islands in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. The island is located at 42° 17' 32.6" North longitude and 70° 56' 21.6" West latitude. The area of the island is...
was used as a setting for the story's island and East Point, in
Nahant, MassachusettsNahant is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,632 at the 2000 census. With just 1.2 square miles of land area, it is the smallest municipality in the state...
for the lighthouse scenes. Filming ended on July 2, 2008.
Additional footage was filmed in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
and wrapped in July 2009.
In
Total FilmTotal Film, published by Future Publishing, is the United Kingdom's second best-selling film magazine. It offers film and DVD news, reviews, and features...
magazine, Scorsese says one of his influences on the film was
Orson WellesGeorge Orson Welles was an American film director, writer, actor and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television, and radio. Welles was also an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety spectacles in the war years...
' 1962 film
The TrialThe Trial is a 1962 film directed by Orson Welles, who also wrote the screenplay based on the novel by Franz Kafka. Welles stated in an interview with the BBC that "The Trial is the best film I have ever made."...
— an adaptation of
Franz KafkaFranz Kafka was a major fiction writer of the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia , Austria–Hungary...
's
novelThe Trial is a novel by Franz Kafka, first published in 1925. One of Kafka's best-known works, it tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime never revealed either to him or the reader.Like Kafka's other novels, The Trial was...
— in particular its use of corridors, tunnels,
claustrophobicClaustrophobia is the fear of having no escape, and being closed in. It is typically classified as an anxiety disorder and often results in panic attack...
ceilings, and angular lenses. He also discusses the importance of costume choices as an element of characterization, noting that a striking choice can leave a subconscious imprint of a character's essence in the spectator's mind: in
Shutter Island, he made Dr. Cawley smoke a pipe, and in some scenes of the film he seems covered by a cloud of smoke, hiding something, with an aura of malice and mystery.
Cast
- Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer whose career rose with his role in the television sit-com Growing Pains....
portrays Teddy Daniels, a U.S. marshal investigating the disappearance.
- Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Fanning opposite Tom Cruise in the 2004 film Collateral, Stan in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Inspector David Toschi in the 2007 film Zodiac.Ruffalo has also...
portrays Chuck Aule, a U.S. marshal and Teddy's partner.
- Ben Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is an English actor. He has won four major motion picture acting awards, receiving Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards throughout his career...
portrays the hospital's chief physician, Dr. John Cawley.
- Michelle Williams
Michelle Ingrid Williams is an American actress. Williams broke into stardom on the teen series Dawson's Creek and later graduated to full-length features, most notably Brokeback Mountain, for which she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.-Early life:Williams was born in...
portrays Dolores Chanal, Daniels' wife.
- Emily Mortimer
Emily Mortimer is an English actress. She began performing on stage, and has since appeared in several film and television roles, including Scream 3 and Match Point .-Early life:...
portrays the escaped patient Rachel Solando.
- Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow is a Swedish-born actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many movies and had supporting roles in dozens more...
portrays Dr. Jeremiah Naering, one of the hospital's physicians.
- Jackie Earle Haley
Jackie Earle Haley is an Academy Award-nominated Americanfilm actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Kelly Leak in The Bad News Bears , pedophile Ronnie McGorvey in Little Children and most recently as vigilante Rorschach in Zack Snyder's Watchmen...
portrays mutilated patient George Noyce.
- Ted Levine
Frank Theodore "Ted" Levine is an American actor. He is arguably best known for his role as Captain Leland Stottlemeyer in the television series Monk.-Early career:...
portrays the Warden of the Hospital.
- John Carroll Lynch
John Carroll Lynch is an American actor. He may be best known for his role as Drew Carey's cross-dressing brother on The Drew Carey Show and for his role as Norm, the unassuming husband of Margie Gunderson in Fargo.In the fall of 2003, he starred in the CBS show The Brotherhood of Poland, New...
portrays McPherson, Deputy Warden of the Hospital.
- Elias Koteas
-Early life:Koteas was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada to a father who worked as a mechanic for the Canadian National Railways and a milliner mother. His parents are both of Greek descent. He can speak Greek and French fluently...
portrays Andrew Laeddis.
- Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Davies Clarkson is an American actress. After having a dramatic education in the East Coast, Clarkson launched her acting career in 1985, and is working steadily on both film and television...
portrays Ethel Barton.
- Brian Moore
Brian Moore may refer to:*Brian Moore *Brian Moore *Brian Moore , Socialist Party USA and Liberty Union Party nominee for president...
portrays a ginger nazi.
Release
The film was scheduled to be released by
Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures Corporation is a Worldwide American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is the world's oldest existing American film studio; it is also the last...
on October 2, 2009 in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Paramount later annouced it was going to push back the release date to February 19, 2010.
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
distributor Manga Films will distribute the film after winning a bidding war that reportedly reached the $6 million to $8 million range.
External links
Trailers: