Scorsese hints at De Niro mafia pic

BERLIN -- Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio tried to keep the focus on "Shutter Island," but the assembled press weren't always on the same page at Saturday's news conference at the Hyatt.

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One man made a plea for Scorsese to help actor Nick Nolte, who has fallen from Hollywood's graces in recent years, while a Spanish filmmaker pitched himself to DiCaprio, saying he wanted to give him his card.

Other questions that seemed to annoy the moderator included one from a lady who asked DiCaprio to say something in German (the actor does speak some in the movie). And one reporter from Kurdish TV asked, "When are you going to make your next big Mafioso film, something like 'Goodfellas 2'?"

After initially laughing off the query, Scorsese said he had nothing more to add to the genre before revealing that he and Robert De Niro were talking about "something that has to do with that world. No doubt about it. But it's from the vantage point of older men looking back."

The panelists, which also included actors Mark Ruffalo, Michelle Williams and Ben Kingsley as well as producers Brad Fischer, Mike Medavoy and Arnold Messer, did manage to keep a good chunk of the presser on point, for example tackling the movie's theme of fear and paranoia, and how it related to the 1950s setting.

The movie is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane and Scorsese and DiCaprio said that, while they did read the book, it was the script that first got their attention.

"To be honest, it was the emotional impact I had reading the last two scenes (that got me hooked)," Scorsese said.

Actors like Williams and Ruffalo, however, said they looked to the book for a deeper understanding of their characters, trying to find nuggets that helped with the psychology of the roles.

"It does some of the work for you," Williams said.