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Wes Anderson x Alamo Drafthouse
Wes Anderson x Five Elephant x Sunst Studio
The Phoenician Scheme merch collabs
Wes Anderson and the cast of The Phoenician Scheme at the New York premiere
The Phoenician Scheme Cannes photo call
THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME World Premiere and Photocall at @Festival_Cannes ?
— Focus Features (@FocusFeatures) May 19, 2025
Wes Anderson, Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Richard Ayoade, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Rupert Friend take the stage. pic.twitter.com/RRA3dUoRZM
Wes Anderson interviews in Hollywood Reporter and Times
Speaking to this year’s Cannes, where did the story for The Phoenician Scheme come from?
I had an idea that I actually brought up to Benicio at Cannes when we showed The French Dispatch. We talked about it briefly, and I didn’t really know what it was, but I had the image of Benicio playing a Euro business tycoon, like somebody in an Antonioni movie. I could just see him in it; I could see him and his sunglasses. But one of the main inspirations — along with a handful of real European businessmen — but the more personal connection is my wife’s father [Fouad Malouf]. He’s Lebanese, and he was an amazing kind of larger-than-life figure, and I really loved him. The thing about him was he was somebody who is wise and very intelligent, but a little bit scary. It was always good to walk into a restaurant with him because everything got taken care of immediately. There are many details of this character that draw on him.
The next film, The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), starred a cantankerous Gene Hackman. “Gene was very annoyed about the money,” Anderson says. “He was furious. Also, he didn’t want to do the film anyway. I talked him into it — I just didn’t go away.” With Hackman on board, Anderson cast Gwyneth Paltrow and Anjelica Huston. “And everybody else said yes to the salary, so Gene just went with it — and that just became our way.”
Hackman died this year, aged 95, making The Royal Tenenbaums his last great film. Did Anderson stay in touch? “Not a word,” he says. “In fact he left without saying goodbye. He was grumpy — we had friction. He didn’t enjoy it. I was probably too young and it was annoying to him.”
The last time Anderson spoke to Hackman was after the film’s release. “And he liked it,” the director says, beaming. “But he told me he didn’t understand it when we were shooting.” He sighs. “I wish I’d shown him ten minutes, early on. Then, maybe, he would have said, ‘OK, I get it.’”
From /r/wesanderson: “Wes Anderson’s exhibition in Paris is AMAZING!”
Wes Anderson exhibit at Cinémathèque Française
Media Coverage
- New York Times: “In Wes Anderson’s World, It’s All About the Details”
- IndieWire: “Wes Anderson Receives First Career Retrospective of His Work at Cinémathèque Française in Paris”
- Le Monde: “Wes Anderson’s childhood memories explored in Paris exhibition”
- Smithsonian: “These Are the Building Blocks of Wes Anderson’s Signature Visual Style”
Exhibit Tour
The Phoenician Scheme is an official selection for the 2025 Cannes Film Festival
News Round-up (8 October 2021)
T-minus 13 days until The French Dispatch is released
PHOTO: EVERETT COLLECTION/YANNIS VLAMOS/INDIGITALIMAGES.COM
Vogue UK: “What Makes Margot Tenenbaum’s Style So Good, Even 20 Years Later“
“Margot’s refined style remains one of the movie’s calling cards two decades later. A gifted playwright who has been adopted into the Tenenbaum family, Margot is an outsider. That’s only underscored by her fashion sense. She’s decidedly more fashion-forward than the rest of the Tenenbaums. But her looks, while distinctive, are never over-styled. In one scene, she’s smoking in the bathroom while painting her toes and wearing a tight, nude slip dress. You get the sense that she does this very thing – in the same exact outfit – every single day.”
W: “On the Scene of the French Dispatch“
“[Owen] Wilson’s mother, Laura, a photographer, is another set regular, snapping the action between takes. Here, she shares her photographs of the French Dispatch set, in Angoulême, a town in southwestern France, and, along with Anderson and Stockhausen, gives us firsthand details about the making of the film.”
New Yorker: “The New Yorker Writers and Editors Who Inspired ‘The French Dispatch‘
“Next month, Anderson’s latest film, “The French Dispatch,” about a magazine in mid-century France that bears a striking resemblance to The New Yorker, will première in theatres across the country. With a star-filled cast that includes Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Timothée Chalamet, the film traces the compilation of an issue of the magazine during a series of chapters, four devoted to the creation of individual articles. There are many things that the filmmaker gets right, as well as a few that slightly miss the mark (perhaps deliberately so). “
The Life Aquatic vs. The Jacques Cousteau Odyssey