20 Things You Didn't Know About Shutter Island

11. The Film Rights Were First Optioned In 2003

Despite the novel being published in 2003, it took a whole seven years to finally be adapted to the big screen, though not for lack of trying.

Hollywood has a habit of snapping up promising novel projects extremely fast - often before they've even been published - and Columbia Pictures actually optioned the rights to Shutter Island the very same year that the book was released.

But after numerous production delays, the rights lapsed back to author Lehane, who then sold them to production company Phoenix Pictures, which ended up producing the film with Scorsese and DiCaprio aboard.