Martin Scorsese, one of the movie industry’s biggest champions of shooting on film, has chosen to go digital for his upcoming feature The Wolf of Wall Street, according to his long-time editor Thelma Schoonmaker. It was also confirmed that the movie will be a 2D production, unlike Scorsese’s previous effort Hugo. Schoonmaker went on to say that this decision could mark the end of Scorsese using film altogether. The news comes as somewhat of a surprise since in the past Scorsese has said that he’d only shoot digitally if the film was in 3D. Even though Hugo‘s digital photography earned great praise and even an Academy Award win, I think many people assumed he’d return to film again. Instead, this marks another step in the transition to digital filmmaking.

Even though Scorsese has chosen to embrace digital, there’s a level of sadness involved for him, as evidenced by an interview with Schoonmaker:

“It’s a very bittersweet thing to be watching films with him now that are on film. We’re cherishing every moment of it. The number of prints that are now being made for release has just gone down, and it would appear that the theatres have converted so quickly to digital.”

For someone who is so associated with film history and preservation, his choice to shoot digitally says something about his willingness to adapt, although sooner or later he’d probably have to do it out of necessity. Do you like the fact that Scorsese has gone digital, or would you prefer that he return to film?