From the Observer (UK):

“I can’t act so it’s just as well they had a puppet to do it,” says Jarvis Cocker of his proper film debut, in Wes Anderson’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox. “The puppet gives a much less wooden performance than I would.”

Fantastic Mr Fox. “The puppet gives a much less wooden performance than I would.”

Cocker voices Petey, one of the few human characters, his role the result of meeting director Anderson when DJing with Pulp bassist Steve Mackey in Paris at the wrap party for Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. “When he’d written the script, he’d also written the words for this song and he asked if I’d do the music for it. Which was quite nice for me ’cause usually when I get asked to do things it’s the other way round – they want me to do the words.” Cocker discounts his previous film appearance, as part of band the Wyrd Sisters in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, as “more like prancing around on stage”.

Early versions of Fantastic Mr Fox cast him as an onscreen narrator but US test audiences were baffled. “I may turn up as a DVD extra in the future,” he opines.

(pre-order at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk)

We excitedly present the  soundtrack listing for Fantastic Mr. Fox, available October 12 in the U.K. and November 3 in the U.S. The commercial ‘track includes one (original) Jarvis Cocker song, the obligatory Rolling Stones lick (“Street Fighting Man”), and three songs by Burl Ives.

1. “American Empirical Pictures”*
2. “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” – The Wellingtons
3. “Mr. Fox in the Fields”*
4. “Heroes and Villains” – The Beach Boys
5. “Fooba Wooba John” – Burl Ives
6. “Boggis, Bunce, and Bean”*
7. “Jimmy Squirrel and Co.”*
8. “Love” – Nancy Adams
9. “Buckeye Jim” – Burl Ives
10. “High-Speed French Train”*
11. “Whack-Bat Majorette”*
12. “The Grey Goose” – Burl Ives
13. “Bean’s Secret Cider Cellar”*
14. “Une Petite Île” – Georges Delerue
15. “Street Fighting Man” – The Rolling Stones
16. “Fantastic Mr. Fox AKA Petey’s Song” – Jarvis Cocker
17. “Night and Day” – Art Tatum
18. “Kristofferson’s Theme”*
19. “Just Another Dead Rat in a Garbage Pail (behind a Chinese Restaurant)”*
20. “Le Grand Choral” – Georges Delerue
21. “Great Harrowsford Square”*
22. “Stunt Expo 2004″*
23. “Canis Lupus”*
24. “Ol’ Man River” – The Beach Boys
25. “Let Her Dance” – Bobby Fuller Four

*Music Composed, Conducted, and Produced by Alexandre Desplat and produced By Wes Anderson and Randall Poster

Discuss it at the Yankee Races forum!

To celebrate reaching 5000 followers on Twitter, Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich made this semi-Andersonian video, aided by Mark Mothersbaugh.

Slow news day.

Looks like Fantastic Mr. Fox will be playing out of competition at the 66th Venice Film Festival. The film will be screened alongside new films from Michael Moore, Steven Soderbergh, and the Coen Brothers, among a host of other films from around the world. Anderson was last at the festival holding the world premiere of The Darjeeling Limited, which played in competition and won the Little Golden Lion prize. The festival runs from September 2nd to the 12th. (Which would make this the world premiere of Fox, coming over a month before the London Film Festival.)

And here’s Fox composer and voice actor Jarvis Cocker on last night’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

The trailer for the Noah and the Whale film/album ‘The First Days Of Spring.’ The track featured is ‘Blue Skies’ and will be the first single from the album.

The Wes-inspired/British band Noah and the Whale is offering the title track from their forthcoming album, The First Days of Spring, for free.

(buy the MP3 album)

Spencer Krug wants to hear from Wes Anderson, and I would love to hear from either of them. Sunset Rubdown’s lead man, Spencer Krug, mentioned Wes in a recent Pitchfork “Guest List” interview in which the band talks candidly about virtually everything.

Artist I’d Most Like to Collaborate With

SK: I can’t totally decide, but I will say that for a long time now I’ve had this fantasy where Wes Anderson just calls me up, casually introduces himself, and explains that he’s run out of cool 1960s and 70s pop to use for soundtrack material and would really appreciate it if I could try writing some tunes for his upcoming film. Then I’d say that I’m super busy right now but his ideas sound “interesting,” and that we should talk about it over a beer.

Krug happens to be a personal favorite musician of mine, and Sunset Rubdown is my favorite of his many projects (read: Wolf Parade, Swan Lake, et al). Needless to say, I was excited to read Wes’s name in Pitchfork’s sub-head.

Full interview can be read here (Wes is mentioned once more): http://pitchfork.com/features/guest-lists/7674-sunset-rubdown/

Any Fun – Coconut Records – Music Video

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