After a lengthy delay, Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island will soon be upon us.

The third film adaptation of a Dennis Lehane novel (Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone the others), Shutter Island was set for a late 2009 release and tipped for awards acclaim.

Yet even Hollywood couldn’t withstand the recent financial crash, and with cash strapped movie studios having to choose which films will be their torch bearers come Awards time, Shutter Island was left behind for The Lovely Bones (admit it, we all thought that film was a contender).

Now due for release in February, anticipation is high for what could be the latest Scorsese masterpiece, once again reuniting the legendary director with Leonardo DiCaprio (The Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Departed), and featuring a stellar cast including the likes of Ben Kingsley, Mark Ruffalo, and Michelle Williams.

A crime thriller set in 1954, Shutter Island stars DiCaprio as U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, who together with his partner (Mark Ruffalo) are assigned to investigate the disappearance of a mental patient from Boston’s Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hosptial.

Upon their arrival they are introduced to hospital administrator Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingsley), the proud brainchild of the fortress like facility which is home to the criminally insane.

It does not long into the investigation to reveal a sinister undercurrent of torture and death, brought on by the radical treatments of the hospitals doctors upon their patients.  

Soon the investigation turns into a fight for survival, as a hurricane crashes down on Shutter Island, cutting communication with the mainland and instigating a prison riot, while Teddy’s sanity slowly unravels as visions of his recently deceased wife (Michelle Williams) haunting him with every step.  

CAST
Leonardo DiCaprio as Teddy Daniels
Mark Ruffalo as Chuck Aule
Ben Kingsley as Dr. John Cawley
Emily Mortimer as Rachel Solando
Michelle Williams as Dolores Chanal
Max von Sydow as Dr. Jeremiah Naehring
Patricia Clarkson as Ethel Barton
Jackie Earl Haley as Geogre Noyce

WRITTEN BY
Dennis Lehane (based on the novel by)
Laeta Kalogridis (screenplay)

DIRECTED BY
Martin Scorsese

RELEASE DATE
AUS: 18 Feb, 2010
UK: 19 Feb, 2010
USA: 19 Feb, 2010