It’s taken him over a year but Martin Scorsese has finally decided what picture he wants to make next and it will indeed be SHUTTER ISLAND, his fourth team-up with Leonardo DiCaprio and the first time he was worked with the talented Mark Ruffalo.

The Hollywood Reporter are telling us Ruffalo has ‘all but signed the contract’ to star as U.S. Marshal Chuck Aule, a guy who travels with his new partner (DiCaprio) to the eponymous Massachusetts island in 1954. As they investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, they encounter a web of lies, a hurricane and a deadly inmate riot that leaves them trapped on the island.

The Paramount/Columbia project is of coursed based on the 2004 novel of the same name written by Dennis Lehane and will begin shooting in March, and with the SGA strike it will have to have completed shooting by the end of June.

Ruffalo’s role in the movie is the one that was bizarrely reported to have been offered to Sylvester Stallone a few weeks back, but that turned out to be a complete fabrication.

Ruffalo put in one of my favourite performances of the year as the animal crackers addict detective David Toshi in the awesome ZODIAC and I’m just happy as hell to see Scorsese finally decide what exactly he wanted to direct next. He’s on a roll right now and DiCaprio is growing with every collaboration. I haven’t read the book so I don’t know how many other characters are in this but if Scorsese casts the caliber of Ruffalo each time, then let’s keep them rolling man!