'Shutter' script intrigued DiCaprio

NEW YORK, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio says the screenplay for "Shutter Island" is what hooked him into starring in Martin Scorsese's new thriller.

Based on the best-selling novel by Dennis Lehane, the movie version was written by Laeta Kalogridis and ranked No. 1 in U.S. theaters when it opened this past weekend.

In the 1954-set film, DiCaprio plays a U.S. Marshal investigating the disappearance of a patient at a hospital for the criminally insane on a Massachusetts island during a hurricane.

"I was very intrigued by this screenplay," the actor told reporters in New York recently.

"It was very much a throwback to great detective genres of the past -- whether 'Vertigo' or 'Out of the Past,' which were films that Scorsese screened for us," DiCaprio said.

"So, at first glance, it was very much of a thriller genre piece with twists and turns that worked on lots of different layers," he explained.

"Once we started to unravel who (my character) was and his past and what he had been through and the nature of what was gong on on Shutter Island, it took us to -- I think -- places that there's no way we could have foreseen. It got darker and darker and more emotionally intense than I think we ever expected. ... We felt surprised at the depth of the material."

DiCaprio, who previously collaborated with Scorsese on "Gangs of New York," "The Aviator" and "The Departed," said he thinks "Shutter Island" shares a common thread with most of the director's other great works.

"At the end of the day, it is what Martin Scorsese does best, and that is portraying something about humanity and human nature and who we are as people," DiCaprio said. "And that's what makes it stand out and makes it different from just being a normal genre piece. To me, anyway."