From the Guardian, full interview after the break.
Portrait of the artist: Wes Anderson, film director
Interview by Laura Barnett
What got you started?
Filming thrillers and jungle chases on Super 8 when I was about 10. I was trying to imitate Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars and, above all, Hitchcock. Watching The Man Who Knew Too Much made me realise that there was such a thing as a director.
What was your big breakthrough?
Making my first proper short, Bottle Rocket, with Owen Wilson on 16mm film when I was 23. Nobody was interested in it except [director and producer] James L Brooks, who picked it up and let us turn it into a full-length movie.
What have you sacrificed for your art?
Well, I’m 40 and I don’t have children yet. I do want to have them: perhaps I already would, if I wasn’t so involved with these movies.
The Playlist blog has uncovered (via Film Music Reporter) a new release of Alexandre Desplat’s Academy Award nominated score from Fantastic Mr. Fox. The collection features unused music from Desplat’s score, recorded at the famous Abbey Road studios. You may remember that a a similar, albeit unofficial release was done of Mark Mothersbaugh’s music for The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic was done during the awards campaign, and that there was an official release of the Seu Jorge sessions done for the latter film aswell.
You can see a full tracklisting, along with links to purchase the collection, after the break.
Dave Poland at Movie City News has a rather informal, half-hour interview with Wes on the Awards campaign trail. Click on the image below to find the interview, it will load automatically in Quicktime.
The A.V. Club recently sat down with Olivia Williams for their great “Random Roles” feature, and one of the films they talked about was, of course, Rushmore.
An except is below, with more after the cut. Read the full article here.
Rushmore (1998)—“Rosemary Cross”
AVC: Wes Anderson was still somewhat of an unknown filmmaker then. What was it like working with him?
OW: I was still in my “do what you’re told” phase, which I’m still pretty well in. It’s served me pretty well. As an actor, you’re just taking temperature. I am anyway, all the time, and responding appropriately. Have you seen Bill Murray’s subsequent film, Lost In Translation? That was what it was like. I was again cast very last-minute and met Wes, this quite physically and socially awkward man who didn’t really talk to me much, a precocious and intelligent young boy. And Bill Murray. And we were sort of left in this bizarre hotel together and taken to strange locations around Houston. That was quite an isolating experience. Again, a lot of fun, but I didn’t really know what was going on. [Laughs.] Bill was incredibly charming and funny and nice, but we were all in a strange vacuum.
FANTASTIC MR. FOX director/co-writer/producer Wes Anderson sat down with Fox Searchlight’s own lovely Stephanie Allen, the basis of a video series in which Wes discusses various aspects of how FANTASTIC MR. FOX came to fruition. And the film’s now been nominated for two Academy Awards! Watch all eight videos here.
So as you may have read on our twitter page (@RushmoreAcademy), Wes was one of the names rumoured to be on Sony’s wishlist of directors for their proposed Spiderman reboot before Marc Webb was chosen. Jeff Loveness has made a parody video based on that possibility, it is below.
With the release of the French version of Fantastic Mr. Fox a mere two weeks away, we thought we’d share the poster for the for dubbed version. Click on the image below to view it full size.
This morning it was announced that Fantastic Mr. Fox received two Academy Award nominations, one for Best Animated Feature and another for Best Original Score. This is the second nomination Wes has received, after receiving a Best Original Screenplay nomination with Owen Wilson in 2002. But what are Fantastic Mr. Fox’s chances come Oscar time? We’ll take a look at that and get Wes’ reaction to the nominations after the break.
