You wouldn't normally expect to see Martin Scorsese listed as the director of an adaptation of a popular children's book. But that's one of the many delightfully strange things about Hugo, a lavish adaptation of Brian Selznick's best-selling period novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, in which a young orphan living in a Parisian train station unwitting befriends the pioneering silent filmmaker, George Méliès. The cast and crew of Hugo appeared at a press conference in New York recently to talk about their involvement in bringing Scorsese's vision for the film to life.

Hangin' With Mr. Scorsese.

Like every other kid that grew up watching The Muppets in their '70s and '80s prime, I've been eagerly awaiting the release of Kermit and the gang's big-screen reboot, The Muppets. It's no secret that Jim Henson's gaggle of colorful puppets lost their way somewhat in the wake of their creator's death, as classic features like The Muppet Movie giving way to embarrassments like Muppets From Space. Certainly, the creative team behind The Muppets -- which includes screenwriter and star Jason Segel, his co-writer Nicholas Stoller and director James Bobin (making his feature film debut after co-creating HBO's terrific Flight of the Conchords series) -- have been saying all the right things about their intentions with this movie, namely bringing back the same playful spirit and toe-tapping score that defined the first three Muppet features, The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper and, my personal favorite, The Muppets Take Manhattan. As an added bonus, it was exciting to think that my own kid's first big-screen encounter with the Muppets (he's already been introduced to the earlier films on DVD) would be a good movie in its own right and not a disappointing reminder of the characters' past glories.