Now that you’ve seen Hugo – and I know you have – were you surprised to see Johnny Depp listed as one of the film’s producers? Curious about that match-up? Follow the film’s words and I suggest you’ll find the missing link.

Screenwriter John Logan, who penned the screen adaptation of Hugo, also adapted Stephen Sondheim‘s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street for the screen, as well as scripting the wholly original Rango – 2011’s other prominent kids’ movie that’s for grown-ups as much as the little ones. Depp is the star of both films, putting him in close contact with Logan. Logan, of course, previously wrote The Aviator for Martin Scorsese to direct. Also look for Logan’s signature on the screenplay for the upcoming Shakespeare adaptation, Coriolanus, directed by Ralph Fiennes.

This article appears in November 25 • 2011.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.