Richard Brody in his New Yorker blog Front Row relays an interview from the German newspaper Die Zeit with Wes Anderson on the recently release of Fantastic Mr. Fox in Germany. Wes apparently “let slip” that perhaps the puppets from Fox could be used in a future Christmas special!

Today The Playlist (via Blu-Ray.com) informs us of three new titles the Criterion Collection will release this fall, one of which is Wes Anderson’s fifth feature film The Darjeeling Limited.

If you’re a reader of the site you know we’ve been campaigning for such a release since it was announced that the film would initially not be Criterion-ized, so as you can imagine we’re thrilled.

Not much information yet, but Criterion has confirmed the title, and will release DVD and Blu-Ray editions sometime before the end of the year. We will of course keep you informed as more information comes in.

For now, let’s go get a drink and smoke a cigarette.

Below we have a video of Wes and Noah Baumbach at the New York Public Library (before a great talk), discussing the writing process and filming eachother. More after the break.

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It’s official:

Animated Film:
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

I have seen 1, 2 and 5 – excellent competition. Good luck, Wes!

Also:

Best Score
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

via Vulture

From Richard Brody’s blog at the New Yorker:

I remembered this passage from the F. Scott Fitzgerald story “The Freshest Boy”:

He had contributed to the events by which another boy was saved from the army of the bitter, the selfish, the neurasthenic and the unhappy. It isn’t given to us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world. They will not be cured by our most efficacious drugs or slain with our sharpest swords.

—and it occurred to me that more than everything else—more than all the things in his stories that I have been inspired by and imitated and stolen to the best of my abilities—THIS describes my experience of the works of J. D. Salinger.

Richard Brody chimes in again for Anderson in his Best of 2009 film list on his Front Row blog. “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is #1 on his list:

1. “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (Wes Anderson): Pure animal wildness plus an exquisitely controlled expressive frenzy; one of the most visually generous movies ever made, comparable in detail to Jacques Tati’s “Playtime.” You have to see it twice to see it once.

via Vulture

Richard Brody profiled Wes a few weeks ago for the New Yorker. On Brody’s excellent film blog for the New Yorker, Front Row, he added some additional commentary (and praise) for “The Darjeeling Limited”:

I’ve seen it many, many times since that press screening two years ago. It has not only held up but gotten richer; each viewing yields fresh wonders.

Anderson and His Friends Bring “Fox” to the City

 by Eugene Hernandez

“I’ve been spending a lot of time in France recently, but this is the Paris that I remember most in my life,” filmmaker Wes Anderson said last night, standing in front of the screen at New York City’s Paris Theater on 58th St. in Manhattan. Across the street at Bergdorff Goodman’s, the windows of the famous 5th Ave. department store were filled with scenes from his new movie, “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Small figurines, adorned in detailed clothing, played out scenes from the animated film about the Fox family.

“This was the first story that stuck in my mind,” praised Anderson, talking about author Roald Dahl’s book “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which he has adapted for the screen (from a screenplay with his friend Noah Baumbach). Before unveiling the film at a gala screening organized by Peggy Siegal, Anderson brought down cast and crew to join him: Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and his brother Eric Anderson, all of whom contribute their voices to the characters in the film.

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Spinner listed its top 10 music-infused scenes from Wes Anderson movies. They pointed out that the Rolling Stones are the band Wes has used most frequently; many associate the Kinks with Wes’s movies more than any other band, but thanks to Spinner we now know the actual answer!

1968 photo of the Rolling Stones by Phillip Townsend

You can see the top 10 list after the jump, but check out the great scene descriptions (& many of the scenes themselves) over at Spinner!

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