Category: Wes Anderson

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Halloween costume contest details announced…

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Enter our First Annual Wes Anderson Inspired Halloween Costume Contest. Thanks to our good friends over at Fox Searchlight, we are giving away three prize packages, featuring those ever-coveted marketing items from The Darjeeling Limited. Each package contains:

  • Travel bag, with “Darjeeling Ltd.” soap, hand sanitizer, and toothbrush.
  • Darjeeling tea, in  “Darjeeling Ltd.” train box.
  • TDL travel ID tag
  • Savoury Snacks packet
  • Sweet Lime packet

To enter, upload a picture of yourself in your Wes-inspired costume to Flickr (registration required) and tag it with “rushmoreacademy.com” (if, for whatever reason, you can’t use Flickr, e-mail me to make alternative arrangements). Who will you be? Peter Whitman? Max Fischer? Steve Zissou? Wes Anderson himself? Bob Yeoman? Dart Boy?

Entries will be voted on by the founders and members of the Yankee Racers forum. By submitting an entry, you:
a) confirm that you are eighteen (18) years of age or older and that it is legal for you to post your picture.
b) give permission to rushmoreacademy.com to post your entry on its public website.

The three prize packages will be awarded for 1) Best Costume (overall); 2) Second Best Costume (overall); and, 3) Best Costume (Darjeeling Limited).

The contest submission period ends November 5, 2007 at 11 p.m. EST. Contest rules, stipulations, and prizes are subject to change at the sponsor’s discretion. RushmoreAcademy.com cannot control the content of Flickr.com. Please report inappropriate entries to the Flickr administrators. Direct inquiries to edwardappleby @ yankeeracers.org (no spaces).

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E-mail your questions for Wes…

to edwardappleby @ yankeeracers.org (no spaces) by midnight ET tonight (Tuesday).

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Wes, Jason, and Roman on another train

All aboard! AP writer Ryan Pearson rode along with Wes, Jason, and Roman on another train ride… this time in California.

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The Darjeeling Limited goes national, with Hotel Chevalier, this weekend!

And Hotel Chevalier is one of the many mysteries in The Darjeeling Limited, according to USA TODAY.

“Are the three brothers — Francis, Jack and Peter (played by Wilson, Schwartzman and Brody, respectively) — inspired by the film legends Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Nicholson and Peter Bogdanovich?

Close but not quite, Anderson says. Jack is actually named for Schwartzman’s father, not Nicholson. “We named the (Wilson) character after Roman’s father, and Peter … well, I’d like to give that to Peter Bogdanovich because he’s my friend.”

Fox Searchlight Pictures

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Wes Anderson and Adrien Brody on AMC’s Shootout

Wes Anderson and Adrien Brody will be on AMC’s Shootout Sunday, October 21, 2007 at 11.00 a.m.

A few clips:

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Wes & Jason on the Reel Geezers, India, Mr. Fox, and Bottle Rocket on Criterion

Help get/keep The Darjeeling Limited on the Yahoo! Buzz Index of most popular searches by clicking here.

Wes and Jason were on CBC’s The Hour last night (video). Wes promised that Hotel Chevalier will be added to The Darjeeling Limited print in Canada.

Ain’t It Cool has a great interview with Wes and Jason, including Wes’ confirmation of a Criterion Collection edition of Bottle Rocket. Some highlights:

[about this]. Roman said they are both very smart, and he really liked them. And the old man said that he liked these brothers, that the movie is from their point of view traveling through India. And she doesn’t like them, but she also felt that the film exploited people in India. And I always feel like, that makes me unhappy to hear anybody say that because we went to India because I was fascinated with this country. We fell in love with it. We are tourists there; that’s all we can ever be there. But we’re tourists who are very interested in this culture and learning about it. It’s a place where people who go there and like it tend to love it, and the people who love it tend to want to go back. There is more religion, more variety of religion, more practice of religion, more rituals there than any place else I’ve ever experienced. I think that’s why people go on pilgrimages there because it’s a place where, if you’re open to it and interested it will genuinely have quite and impact on you just because of the intensity of the place. I’ve always found that I had very emotional experiences there, but then you get sensitive and wonder if that sounds kind of naive. I don’t know. I just hate to sound self-protective and defensive; I’d rather just express our real feelings about it….

It’s taken us a long time to get this [Fantastic Mr. Fox] going, but we finally got it going. Noah Baumbach and I adapted it. George Clooney is going to play Mr. Fox. We’ve just started working on it in England, and it’s going. We have a guy named Mark Gustafson directing the animation. Henry [THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS] Selick was going to do it originally but over time that didn’t work out because Henry has his own thing he’s directing [CORALINE, based on Neil Gaiman’s novel]….

I think the closest thing to compare it to is that Eastern European stuff, because the animals are going to have fur, and the sets are meant to look kind of like real life. So it’s more in the vein….

[about the Criterion Collection DVD] That’s right. We just have to do a lot of work to prepare it, but that’s in the works. I was supposed to do a bunch of stuff already that I didn’t do yet, so I’m going to get on it though. But some of the stuff is at my mother’s house in Texas, so I have to go to Texas and dig through all my boxes, because there’s materials for the movies that I haven’t looked at in a long, long time. And we want to try and include everything that might be good….

Jason’s new album Nighttiming is available as an MP3 download on Amazon.com. Buy it here — it supports the site.

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Wes and Jason On Tour, 2007

Thursday evening update: Wes and Jason will be on CBC’s The Hour tonight — Thursday, October 18th at 11 pm ET. We will post the video tomorrow.

Fox Searchlight schedule

Toronto, D.C., Austin, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, and more*

* note, not all dates include BOTH Wes & Jason

The Huffington Post compares Wes to Sofia Coppola

Someone who’s never seen a Wes film (other than TDL) interviews the writers and gets some interesting answers:

“I can’t remember having a work experience or travel experience that I felt was more life-changing than this one, just in terms of how it affects your point of view and just the feeling coming out of it . . . We wanted a mechanic who looked like a Nazi but then turns out to be a good guy. . . I mean, he’s Ringo. Does Ringo get offended? I don’t know. I doubt it.”

The Cleveland Free Times, compares Wes to Richard Lester and Peter Bogdonavich, and also gets a scoop:

“Anderson is also in the process of writing a new live-action film that he hopes to get before the cameras within the next year. “Ideally, I’d like to have two movies opening at the same time,” he says optimistically . . . I’ve had offers and have even thought about directing some big Hollywood tent-pole kind of thing, but that’s about as far as it’s gone.”

The Retriever Weekly calls TDL “simply awesome”

Check out this great essay on Wes from Fanzine

Broadside Online praises a Wes trait that often goes unnoticed these days, his sincerity:

“With his latest film, the oddball auteur takes his audience on a train ride fraught with a newfound maturity that elevates his talent as a filmmaker to impressive new heights. So hop aboard The Darjeeling Limited and experience Wes Anderson’s eclectic, eccentric, esoteric and always entertaining blend of comedy, tragedy and heartbreaking sincerity.“

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Onboard video: train tour, and more production videos

Go see The Darjeeling Limited this weekend, newly available in 13 new markets this weekend! Also be sure to join our community forum, the Yankee Racers.

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Unlimited Appeal

Is Wes Anderson a Genius?

“What Wes Anderson has done with The Darjeeling Limited is craft a masterpiece that eschews all the criticism for his previous work. . . The Darjeeling Limited is basically a collection of short stories with the same three recurring characters. The film is indeed episodic, but in a good way, with a narrative thru-line that helps carry the emotional baggage (pun intended) throughout the journey. . . it wouldn’t surprise me if the film were made in the 70’s. It didn’t remind me of any modern day films, instead conjuring up The Passenger or the Apu films or The 400 Blows. But it still felt original, like it was a unique and modern film, only with hints of where film has gone before. . .While I don’t think this film is on par with The Royal Tenenbaums, it is still a small masterpiece that stands up to Rushmore and is miles beyond The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.”

Anne Thompson of Variety.com is one of many who call Darjeeling Wes’ best since Rushmore:

“Darjeeling is gorgeous to look at, full of the hum and vibrancy of India, quirky, delightfully detailed, and often funny. . . a satisfying entertainment.”

San Diego City Beat agrees:

“The Darjeeling Limited isn’t a particularly complex film, and that actually makes it stronger . . . It’s easy to say this is just another film about spoiled man-children who are unable to deal with the realities of life, and that enlightenment, spiritual or otherwise, can’t be purchased through a travel agent. And you’d be right. But that’s the point, and that’s exactly why Wes Anderson has gotten back on track. Because, grasshopper, sometimes enlightenment is found when you stop looking for it.”

The Onion A.V. Club interviews Wes:

“Any time someone doesn’t like one on the first run, I hope they will give it another shot. At least we’ll get another chance. But I do feel, in my approach, I am not really a minimalist. I don’t like to leave out ideas that I think could add something to the story. Sometimes, you can’t quite pick up on all of it in one sitting. It’s not by design. But maybe it’s a side effect of my approach.”

The Onion also gives us 10 Films That Couldn’t Have Happened Without Wes Anderson, and 16 Films Without Which Wes Anderson Couldn’t Have Happened

Scribe Life/Folio Weekly says it’s all played for laughs, except when it’s not:

“The most oddly affecting little movie of the season. It’s funny, goofy and genuinely sweet.”

Baltimore City Paper interviews Wes:

“Honestly, I’m not making movies where I think, `Let me see how weird this can be,'” Anderson defends himself. “With [Darjeeling] our credo was, How personal can we make it? . . . When I make a movie about India, I make it from the point of view of a foreigner.”

Huffington Post has a piece by Darjeeling set designer Mark Friedberg:

“Wes had refused the traditional approach of building an interior set on a stage and the fate of the film was in the balance. Having intimate insight into the process I can safely say that the film almost didn’t happen. Many sleepless nights in the bed of the designer and the producer were had leading up to the beginning of our shooting schedule. On the night the train arrived the entire crew showed up at the shop and cheered.”

The Willamette Week raves:

“Nothing in the film matches the dull inevitability of its reviews . . . And there’s something about that first Darjeeling image, two men sprinting in slow motion for a train, that brings to mind The Great Gatsby ’s famous words about how “tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further….” Wes Anderson beats on, while his characters are borne back ceaselessly into their pasts.”

Here’s a fun ‘behind the scenes’ video from the Venice Film Festival – thanks, Stretch!

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Take Dead Aim

Last week, Slate.com (I actually just mistyped it as Stale.com) went after Wes. Slate had both a negative review and a piece attacking Wes for being racist.

Glenn Kenny takes dead aim:

“Because the e-zine Slate is all about kicking things up a notch in the “contrarianism” department, it was not content to post Dana Stevens’ entirely predictable (the word “twee” is used) pan of The Darjeeling Limited last week. (Stevens’ point, a hardly original one, is that Wes Anderson needs to start making movies that are less like Wes Anderson movies.) It went for a one-two combo, with Jonah Weiner’s “Unbearable Whiteness” intended as the knockout punch.

Weiner doesn’t come out and call Anderson a racist, but the piece’s rhetoric does play to the very special, considered self-righteousness of its ideal reader. “That queasy feeling you get when watching a Wes Anderson movie” reads the subhead. Oh yes, I wondered about that. Please do tell from whence it stems, Jonah Weiner.”

If Jonah Weiner finds Wes’ films so offensive, I wonder what he thinks of his Slate colleague Christopher Hitchens, and his culturally sensitive piece, “Why Women Aren’t Funny.” If you’re looking to be outraged by insensitive material, I think you can find a better target than Wes Anderson whose filmography is unusually warm and generous in spirit.

Off the soapbox, and on to more good reviews, including Rolling Stone’s full review:

“The dumb rap against the gifted Wes Anderson is that his comedies (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic) all hit on similar themes of broken dreams and shattered families. Damn him. And damn Hitchcock for his obsession with suspense. And what’s with Scorsese and violence? My point is, an artist can spend a satisfying lifetime developing personal themes and deepening their resonance. . .The magically compelling Darjeeling Limited strikes me as the fullest blossoming yet of Anderson’s talents as a total filmmaker.” – Peter Travers

New City Chicago says Darjeeling is “the best thing he’s done since “Rushmore.”

More good box office news. In New York, Darjeeling actually came in second on the box office charts. Not just the per screen average, second overall.

The Los Angeles Times has a great interview with Jason Schwartzman:

“The “Darjeeling” shoot was an intimate one. Mornings, Wilson cooked Brody and Schwartzman oatmeal that he’d brought from L.A. Then they each donned their suits, fixed their own hair and makeup and by 7, they were jumping on a train which became their traveling set. For about 14 hours each weekday, everyone packed into those tiny compartments. “You have no place to hide,” said Schwartzman. “And I think that really helped. We really were forced to be there for each other.”

Mark Reviews Movies on Darjeeling:

“Anderson back in fine form. . .What I most admire about Anderson is his confidence in laying all his cards on the table. His neo-New Wave style is and makes us conscious of technique, but when he’s on, Anderson balances the artifice with the affecting in a way that somewhat blindsides us with its sincerity. The balance of The Darjeeling Limited is weighted just right.”

EW.COM interview with Anderson, Murray, Schwartzman, Brody, and Waris Ahluwalia

Another fine Schwartzman interview

Interview with Wes about Darjeeling, Aquatic, and The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Nervous Wes at the Fest

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News, Reviews, & Elephant Pins

Darjeeling Limited did gangbusters at the box office this weekend.

“We are extremely excited about it,” Fox Searchlight’s Sheila DeLoach said Sunday. “Wes Anderson’s fans came out in droves.”

Terry Gross interviews Wes and Jason on NPR’s Fresh Air

Bill Murray’s Darjeeling Evening

Interview with Wes, Jason, Adrien on LA.COM

Article on US reaction to Darjeeling from IndieLondon

Glenn Kenny’s night at the Darjeeling premiere

Chicago Sun Times Interview with Wes

Incredibly detailed analysis of the Darjeeling marketing campaign

Interview with Wes in the New Jersey Star Ledger

Jason Schwartzman on The Early Show

Variety has an article on the New York Film Festival, which includes this alarming anecdote:

“John Powers saw an early sneak of ‘Rushmore’ and as I remember the people at Disney had no idea what to do with it. There was some talk of it going straight to video. John called and said, ‘I saw this film, it’s really terrific, can you do anything about it?’ And so I called up Disney and, to make a long story short, by inviting the film, I think we (staged) an intervention in its future.”

That was indeed an elephant pin Bill Murray was wearing, more on that here.