The World of Wes Anderson
Variety writes that Wes will be appearing onstage at the Rome Film Festival next month: 
Anderson is coming on behalf of Martin Scorsese‘s The Film Foundation to present a new print of Albert Levin’s 1951 fantasy “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman,” starring Ava Gardner and James Mason, restored by the foundation in tandem with the Rome fest.
The Rome Film Festival will be Oct 22-31.
From Variety.
Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment has set Wes Anderson to write “My Best Friend,” a remake of the 2006 Patrice Leconte-directed French comedy “Mon meilleur ami.” Anderson is also eying the project as a directing vehicle.
Brian Grazer and Agnes Mentre will produce. Rosalie Swedlin will be executive producer.
The French pic starred Daniel Auteuil as a cranky antiques dealer who learns at a dinner with his closest acquaintances that none of them really like him because of his harsh manner and selfishness. When his business partner bets him a valuable vase that he can’t produce a best friend, the dealer tries to get an amiable cab driver to pose as his buddy.
Pic marks Anderson’s first collaboration with Imagine, which releases the Ron Howard-directed “Frost/Nixon” on Dec. 5 and the Clint Eastwood-directed “Changeling” on Oct. 24 through Universal and “Angels & Demons” on May 15 through Sony.
Anderson just completed directing an animated adaptation of Roald Dahl novel “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” with 20th Century Fox Animation.
UTA reps Anderson and sold remake rights on the film to Universal.
Credit: Loraxaeon (Yankee Racers thread)
(credit: Houston Chronicle, more photos after the break)
First, if you live in the Houston area, you can see Rushmore tonight on the big screen!
Discovery Green’s free movie series celebrates Houston on film with a 10th anniversary screening of this indie classic by Houstonian Wes Anderson.
Event times: 5 September 2008 (Friday), 7.30 pm (link)
Andrew Dansby has written a great article about the 10th anniversary of Rushmore for the Houston Chronicle (link):
It takes a special eye to see Houston as the setting for a fairy tale. Wes Anderson thought about shooting his second film, Rushmore, in New England, but he couldn’t find a location that worked for the titular school.
So he asked his mother, real estate agent Texas Anderson, to shoot his alma mater, St. John’s School, “standing in the circle and rotating while shooting one photo after another,” she said. The search ended there.
Having found Rushmore Academy right in his backyard, Wes Anderson’s next task was finding Houston locations for the rest of the film. (By the way, the city is never stated as the setting in the movie.) He shot most of it at St. John’s, but there are also scenes filmed at a home in West University, Lamar High School, a barbershop in the Heights, North Shore High School, the Forest Club on Memorial and a stadium parking lot just outside the Loop (see map on Page E3).
Continue reading “Houston Chronicle article, Rushmore tonight in the park (Houston)”
Derek Hill is the author of the new book Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood’s Merry Band of Pranksters, Fabulists and Dreamers, now available in the U.K. (Amazon | Waterstone’s | Blackwell ) and the U.S. ( Amazon ). He has agreed to write several pieces for the Academy.
Wes Anderson’s skillful use of music in his films has no doubt come up on this site before, so I’ll refrain from proselytizing. Along with Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, PT Anderson, and Sofia Coppola, Anderson—working with his longtime musical composer Mark Mothersbaugh (at least up until The Darjeeling Limited) and any of his respective editors—is one of the best practitioners at integrating pop/rock songs into a scene in a way that is memorable and emotionally satisfying. It’s easier said than done, of course. Utilizing songs in lieu of an original score (or in tandem) can be precarious. It can bring out the most wasteful and unimaginative characteristics in a clumsy filmmaker. I’m sure we all have our own list of nefarious culprits who exemplify the worst that the medium can offer up, those lazy directors/composers who send us into catatonia as they slather on yet another saccharine note or bludgeon us into the next theater with their bullying bombastic chords. I’m talking about… well, you know who they are. We all bear the sonic scars.
Continue reading “Guest Blogger: Derek Hill on the Musicology of Wes Anderson”
Derek Hill is the author of the new book Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood’s Merry Band of Pranksters, Fabulists and Dreamers, now available in the U.K. (Amazon | Waterstone’s | Blackwell ) and out soon in the U.S. ( Amazon ). He has agreed to write several pieces for the Academy. This is part 2; Derek has decided to offer the section of the book on TDL in its entirety. Enjoy!
‘Is that symbolic? We. Haven’t. Located. Us. Yet!’
– Francis Whitman (Owen Wilson) has his mind blown when he realises that the train he and his brothers have been passengers on is lost.
Anderson has never been averse to addressing mortality head-on in his films, specifically the death of a spouse (Rushmore), parent (The Royal Tenenbaums) or child (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou). Although all of his films are ostensibly comedies, there has always been an element of the impermanence of things, of people, that has delicately coaxed an emotional resonance forth from the wackiness. Not particularly original or groundbreaking, but when one considers the frequently bathetic treatment of death in much of American mainstream cinema, Anderson’s unsentimental and realistic treatment of grief is a commendable aspect and intrusion upon his lucid, intensely fabricated theatricality. As much as Anderson has become a master of the elaborate multi-layered mise-en-scene, he also astutely understands the moment to drop back, allowing his characters to feel the brunt of their sorrow without excessive ornamentation. The Darjeeling Limited is as waggish as any of Anderson’s previous work. But at its core is the black hole of loss, the invisible thread that binds us as profoundly (if not more so) than birth.
Continue reading “Guest Blogger: Derek Hill on The Darjeeling Limited”
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Derek Hill is the author of the new book Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood’s Merry Band of Pranksters, Fabulists and Dreamers, now available in the U.K. (Amazon | Waterstone’s | Blackwell ) and out soon in the U.S. ( Amazon ). He has agreed to write several pieces for the Academy.
First of all, I want to thank Mr. Appleby for inviting me here to blog and for graciously mentioning my book, Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood’s Merry Band of Pranksters, Fabulists and Dreamers. The book is the first study of directors Richard Linklater, David O. Russell, Wes Anderson, Spike Jonze, Sofia Coppola, and Michel Gondry as a movement of filmmakers despite their varied aesthetic approaches– a sort of (new) American New Wave in the direct tradition of the French New Wave filmmakers. It’s currently available in the UK and will be released in the US in September.
Perusing the Rushmore Academy message boards, I was taken with the thread asking “how long have you been a Wes fan?” So as a way to introduce myself to the Rushmore Academy, I’ll give my own rambling two cents, but also I’d like to talk about the film that did it… the one that sent me head over heels in love with Anderson’s work.
Continue reading “Guest Blogger: Derek Hill on Wes Anderson”
(Margherita Missoni and Wes Anderson. Article after the break. URL.)
Continue reading “Wes sighting: “Surf and Turf” (Style.com)”
Derek Hill’s great new book, Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood’s Merry Band of Pranksters, Fabulists and Dreamers: An Excursion Into the American New Wave, is out in the U.K. and coming soon to North America. More soon…
(Click to pre-order: for Americanos)
(Britishers, Little Englanders, and other UK residents, order: Amazon | Waterstone’s | Blackwell)
