Spoiler alert! Anyone who lived through the post—Sixth Sense era — when, for years, no movie could get greenlit unless it had a surprise ending — can probably guess Shutter Island’s twist from just its log line. Which, as you can imagine, slightly complicates the process of profiling Leonardo DiCaprio for a Shutter Island—pegged cover story. The intro to Cal Fussman’s five-page as-told-to interview with the actor in the new Esquire (organized into sections in which DiCaprio explains the important lessons he learned on films) describes the movie only as “Martin Scorsese’s new thriller.†And Leo’s only mention of it in the main text would fit into two tweets (and it’s not even in the part Esquire has excerpted online).
Says DiCaprio:
Now, if moviegoers can simply avoid Shutter Island’s trailer and poster, and try not to read any of the Amazon reviews of the Dennis Lehane novel on which it’s based — yet still, somehow, find out that the movie exists and will be released next Friday! — it should be wildly successful.
“I have to say, I’m pretty proud of Shutter Island. I’d love to tell you a particular story about it, but I can’t. I’m not going to talk about it in any detail because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who’s going to watch it.â€
Now, if moviegoers can simply avoid Shutter Island’s trailer and poster, and try not to read any of the Amazon reviews of the Dennis Lehane novel on which it’s based — yet still, somehow, find out that the movie exists and will be released next Friday! — it should be wildly successful.