“Wes Anderson is shooting his new movie in Spain, with production set to begin in September.
In a recent interview with Variety, Tilda Swinton revealed that she will star in the project, specific details of which are being kept closely under wraps…
The project is believed to have originally planned to shoot in Rome, but moved to Spain earlier this year. Sets resembling a desert landscape have been going up in Chinchón, a small town located southeast of Madrid, over the last two months, as reported by Spanish outlet El Pais. However, the film isn’t believed to necessarily be a western.”
Some highlights (spoilers ahead for design nerds):
“[Production designer Adam] Stockhausen explains that all Anderson projects begin with an animatic. “The animatic is really a way of thinking through the entire movie from an animation point of view and building the entire film shot by shot in a way that defines the scope of what you see… In The French Dispatch, some of the live action is in miniature context, some is in context of the location and some are full-scale set builds.”
“’The film is broken up into different stories each of which has its own visual story, so the task of design is multiplied,’ Stockhausen says. There is even a pure animated sequence. ‘Conventionally you introduce a set and keep going back to it over and over again. Here, we introduce places and 20 minutes later we’re done with that story, never to return.'”
“Tonal references included The Red Balloon, a 1956 French fantasy short filmed in the Ménilmontant neighbourhood of Paris, and photos of Paris before its reconstruction in the mid-19th century. ‘The idea was to find a town which felt like Paris but not as it is today – more a sort of memory of Paris, the Paris of Jacques Tati,’ explains Stockhausen.”
“The French Dispatch is shot on 35mm with Yeoman finding the texture of negative film more in keeping with the story’s artisanal aesthetic. Several sequences are shot in black and white with colour used for emphasis, for instance when actress Saoirse Ronan leans forward to reveal her blue eyes.”
“Anderson also uses different aspect ratios to tell parts of this story. It’s a technique he has used before, notably on ‘Budapest’ when Yeoman shot 1:37 for the scenes that take place with concierge Gustave to signify the time period of the 1930s and 1940s.”
The latest from the MCU drops on Disney+ today and co-stars Wes’ former UT classmate and frequent collaborator Owen Wilson. According to the Irish Times:
“Marvel’s WandaVision channelled David Lynch, and there were moments when the otherwise underwhelming The Falcon and the Winter Soldier threatened to turn into an unofficial sequel to Keanu Reeve’s John Wick. So it was probably inevitable that the Marvel Cinematic Universe would eventually get around to its David Fincher moment.
That, at least, is how Loki (Disney +) is framed by its director, Kate Herron, who describes the series, which airs its first episode on Wednesday, June 9th, as “heavily influenced” by Fincher. Given that Fincher’s most recent project was the dreadful Mank, this might not be quite the endorsement she thinks it is. Nor is it especially accurate – if Loki’s enjoyable if often slight opening episode resembles anything it’s Doctor Who remade by Wes Anderson.”
Motherbaugh’s version of “Hey Jude” is one of my absolute favorites (“Go Mordecai!”). It was not included on the original 2001 soundtrack release but was added to the 2002 re-release.
“The famed house from Wes Anderson’s 2001 ‘The Royal Tenenbaums‘ is now available for rent for a cool $20,000 a month in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood of Harlem. Anderson discovered the house while location scouting in 2000 and said he admired the home’s storybook quality.’ Indeed, looking closely at the home’s listing on Street Easy reveals it’s been renovated since filming, but the house still retains plenty of the charm it held in the Oscar-nominated movie. “
“The latest film by American director Wes Anderson, ‘The French Dispatch,’ will premiere at this year’s Cannes film festival in the official competition, organizers said Friday.”
“The Tribeca Film Festival is adding some splashy talks to its upcoming New York City lineup, which promises to be the first major film festival in the U.S. to return to business as normal after the pandemic…
The 20th anniversary of “The Royal Tenenbaums” will be celebrated with a reunion of director Wes Anderson with stars Alec Baldwin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston, and Danny Glover. “
“El Pais reports that the director will be staying in Europe, but headed to Spain––specifically Chinchón in southeast Madrid––this July, August, and September to shoot his next movie. Sets are already being built for the production that resemble desert landscapes seen in westerns, though it’s reported that the film will not be in that genre.”
