A little light today, but still full of love. We’re in between movies and casting and we’re feeling the strain. Hopefully soon, we’ll hear more about the official cast and plot for #8, which starts filming in the fall. Until then, let’s get down to it:
- (Above): One of our favorite scenes from MR, based on a true story.
- Covetous of Sam’s scout badges? Buy your own here!
- Hat’s off to Boston Sunday Globe for their beautiful full page for the Boston premiere of Moonrise.
- The clip that started it all: Jason Schwartzman’s audition for Rushmore.
- britishindie has designed cleverly minimalist posters for each of Wes’ films. Collect them all!
- Houston Press picked Wes as one of the five film directors they’d like to see direct the Olympics.
- thisisbooksmusic has a great post about Suzie’s record player.
- Even fashion icon Victoria Beckham is inspired by Moonrise Kingdom. That’s Suzie’s dress if I’ve ever seen it!
- If you’re in the mood for some fan art, the official Moonrise Kingdom tumblr has got you covered.
Hello hello! Another Friday, another round-up. Many thanks to my compatriots for posting while I was away. This week brought us some exciting revelations regarding Movie #8, aka The Grand Budapest Hotel. We are thrilled, excited, and just beside ourselves with glee over this news and, as you’d expect, we’ll bring you all of the updates as they come. Now, onward!
- (Above) ANTWRANGLER‘s flickr photostream once again has some excellent behind-the-scenes shots from Moonrise.
- Film Fashion Junkie’s MR fashion style boards manage to capture the essence of a few key characters.
- A great round-up of some Wes-inspired posters. Don’t miss the great reinterpretation of the ‘stars’ of Rushmore.
- Have you been wanting a Camp Ivanhoe shirt of your very own? For only $6? Today is your lucky day. (There’s also a $6 Team Zissou shirt if that’s more your speed.)
- We’re charmed by the Moonrise and Tenenbaums cross stitch projects on amezissou‘s flickr.
- Aphelis explains the inspiration of French photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue on Rushmore and The Life Aquatic.
- Bright Wall Dark Room’s Moonrise Kingdom write-up is half-review, half-personal reflection and wholly excellent.
- Classic(-ish) Interview: Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson discuss Fantastic Mr. Fox (and many other great things) in this lengthy video from the New York Public Library.
- The Criterion Collection will be releasing a Blu-Ray Edition of The Royal Tenenbaums in August. Preorder at Amazon.
One week later and here we are again. News is slowing down, but the fan-art is speeding up. At this point, we’re in a lull, so we’ll take what we can get. There’s just never enough Anderson news for our liking.
Here we are again, so soon:
- (Above) Hexagonall has lovingly created a minimalist alphabet with characters from Wes’s films and, of course, had to include the man himself.
- Apartment Therapy took cues from Wes twice this week: a room inspired by Moonrise Kingdom and an office inspired by the entire canon.
- A Wes Anderson-style short made the list of Mashable’s 10 Amazing Spider-Man Parodies.
- Adweek rounded up their 10 favorite Wes-directed commercials. As you would expect, his tongue-in-cheek American Express ad topped the bill.
- Design is Mine collected inspirational/aspirational images from and related to MR.
- An in-depth look by the Los Angeles Times reveals a deeply woven vulnerability and earnestness throughout WA’s films. A choice quote:
Anderson’s movies are alive with nostalgia in both content and form, but it’s their originality that makes people want to place him in a lineage and inspires others to copy him.
- In case you thought Focus Features wasn’t quite covering all the bases with their marketing strategy, all of the primary characters from Moonrise Kingdom have created Pinterest boards.
- Classic Interview:The Onion’s AV Club interviewed Wes in 1999, just after the release of Rushmore. It’s just about as charming as it could be.
As you may expect, around these parts we read a lot of interviews with Wes Anderson. (A lot of interviews.) But very few are worth posting here– the ground is covered, the same questions are asked, and there’s nothing really to report. However, Fast Co. Create’s recent interview with Wes was interesting because we finally got something new– an inside peek into his writing and directing process.
When asked about his writing process:
“[In writing the script], I want to make more than something you visualize, I want to make something you can sit there and read; you can experience the story.”
[...]
“I like to have a record of something I wrote out there,” says Anderson. Which is why he publishes his scripts. “I’m sure a lot of the people who buy it never read it because you read a few pages and say, ‘Yes, yes, oh yes, I remember all this stuff,’ and then you can kind of move on. But I just like to at least be able to say, ‘Well, it was published and it existed.’” So the Moonrise Kingdom script was recently put out as an e-book by Faber & Faber, [...] And he’s not exactly celebrating the e-book’s brisk sales. “I asked the guys at Faber, ‘How many have we sold?’ and they said, ‘We’ve already sold 100.’” Anderson pauses. “Oh, so, 100. In three months. Wow, that’s great. We’re doing great.”
Note to Rushmore Academicians: This is a call to action. Let’s help make Wes a little happier and all buy the ebook. For everyone we know.
The rest of the interview covers his decision to film in Rhode Island, set structure, storyboarding scenes, lessons learned from previous films, the challenges of working with young actors, and his musical selections. Again, it’s well worth a read.
And finally, some great news about Movie #8: they hope to start shooting by the end of the year. Read the full article at Fast Co. Create.
Yes, you read that right. Despite the fact that many of you are seeing Moonrise for the first time in theaters, MR is now available for preorder on Amazon. A release date hasn’t been set yet, but you can be the first on your block to add the film to your Wes Anderson collection. No word if the film will get a Criterion release, but you know we’ll stay on the trail.
(Fan art by TheArtOfAdamJuresko)
Friends, Romans, Countrymen– welcome back into the fold. As you have surely noticed, yes, things are slowing down- down, but not out. There is more to come and much to look forward to: the ever expanding release of Moonrise, award season, more information about Movie #8, films by related artists, and new features (!) on the site. But for now, let’s get to it.
- (Above) Marta Does 365 does Moonrise Kingdom. I think she captured Sam very well.
- Got a hankering for Tenebaums-inspired paper crafts? Look no further than A Pazitive View. She created an impressive centerpiece for her graduation party.
- Wes wedding items seems to be a trend in the Friday Round-Up and this week is no different. Matt and Jackie’s WA-inspired Save the Date is spot on and is just about perfect– funny, charming, and sweet.
- Vanity Fair interviewed Wes recently and while they covered a lot of familiar ground, there were a few great tidbits about living with Bill and Jason and his appreciation for detail.
- NPR asks and answers “Why Is There So Much Britten in Moonrise Kingdom?” Spoiler alert: because he’s fantastic.
- Style.com rounded up a few Andersonesque designs and boldly asserts that fashion is having a Wes Anderson moment. Why not, right?
- Bob Balaban told Rotten Tomatoes his five favorite films and answered a few questions about Moonrise Kingdom and his career.
As any person with two ears who has seen an Anderson film can tell you, the soundtrack is vital to the tone and success of the films. For many of the most memorable scenes, it’s impossible to extract the song from the memory or imagine any other song in its place. Try to imagine Margot stepping off the Greenline Bus without Nico. Try to imagine Peter running to catch the train without the Kinks. You can’t and you shouldn’t; the songs are perfect and pairing music with film is an artform in and of itself. Pitchfork interviewed Wes Anderson and Randall Poster separately about their musical influences, their personal music choices, and discovering new music.
Our favorite is this bit from Randall Poster:
Pitchfork: Do you ever think about whether your work with Wes has inspired people to make music, or opened them up to new sounds?
RP: In the course of the 16 years that we’ve worked together, a lot of bands have been born, and I think there have been some inspired by Wes, to a certain degree. And when kids come up to you and they’re like, “Rushmore really opened me up to a whole world of music,” that’s the absolute greatest. Both of us have shared the experience of being the kid in the dark, watching the movie and just saying, “Oh my God, this is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.” And when you feel like you’ve affected another kid sitting in the dark, that’s a great reward.
The rest of the article can be read over at Pitchfork.
The Onion’s A.V. Club sat down with Bob Balaban to discuss his experience of working with an auteur and selections from his four-decade career, including when he worked as a translator both on- and off-screen for Francois Truffaut during Close Encounters.
This part especially charmed us:
AVC: There does seem to be a lot of Truffaut in Moonrise Kingdom.
BB: That’s what I thought. I didn’t think of it when I read it, but when I saw the movie, it just leapt out at me. The formality of the movie did not let me see it earlier than that, but when I saw the movie all together, I went, “Truffaut.” I was really sad Truffaut wasn’t watching it, because he would have just been crazy for that seven-minute scene on the island with the boy and the girl. That was Truffaut in a nutshell, the seriousness of kids and the respect you have to give them when you’re dealing with them or portraying them. The not talking down, the specificity of young love, which nobody ever gets, really.
Read the rest of the article over at the A.V. Club.
Maybe you haven’t yet heard, but Moonrise Kingdom is still expanding in its platform release. In order to keep up spirits and excite new audiences, Funny or Die produced an exclusive video directed by Wes Anderson with Jason Schwartzman as Cousin Ben hosting a screening for the Khaki Scouts. No spoilers, but a very cute addition to the online exclusives.
The most frequent question that we’ve seen on tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook has been, “When is Moonrise Kingdom opening in my hometown?” If you yourself have asked this question, you are part of the success story of Moonrise‘s platform release strategy.
First, let’s turn to wikipedia for a definition of a platform release:
A platform release is a limited release strategy, whereby the film opens in only a few theaters, then gradually expands to more theaters as word of mouth spreads and the marketing campaign gains momentum. Depending on the film’s success, there is even the possibility to expand into a wide release. The advantage of this strategy is that marketing costs are conserved until a film’s performance has been established. This way, if a film turns out to be very popular or critically acclaimed, the distributor may opt to spend more money than originally planned and push for a wider release; if the movie flops, the distributor can withdraw from the campaign without having spent much money promoting and advertising the film.
As you may have heard, MR opened in only four theaters (two in New York and two in Los Angeles), but the film earned $167,250 per screen, which is highest per-theater box office average for a non-animated film of all time. Continue reading »
Join us after the jump for more thoughts regarding MR‘s success.
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