10-film Wes Anderson Archive, and separate releases of Isle of Dogs and The French Dispatch for the first time coming to Criterion Blu-Ray in September!


DIRECTOR-APPROVED TWENTY-DISC 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION COLLECTOR’S SET FEATURES
- – New 4K digital masters of Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, and The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks
- Ten 4K UHD discs of the films presented in Dolby Vision HDR and ten Blu-rays with the films and special features
- – Over twenty-five hours of special features, including audio commentaries, interviews, documentaries, deleted scenes, auditions, short films, home movies, commercials, storyboards, animation tests, archival recordings, still photography, discussions/analyses, and visual essays
- – English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- – PLUS: Essays by Richard Brody, James L. Brooks, Bilge Ebiri, Moeko Fujii, Kent Jones, Dave Kehr, Geoffrey O’Brien, Martin Scorsese, and Erica Wagner


Limited edition Wes Anderson vinyls from The Vinyl Factory
“Each record is pressed on 180-gram heavyweight black vinyl, with 350gsm matt laminated outer sleeve and 350gsm silk matt laminated inner card. The releases are housed in protective PVC sleeves and are limited to 1000 copies wordwide.” The art is magnificent. Note that each vinyl has two songs. More here.




Actor Tom Wilkinson, Author in The Grand Budapest Hotel, has died

We are saddened to learn that Tom Wilkinson, Author of/in The Grand Budapest Hotel, has passed away. https://t.co/gVbN7KFEmm pic.twitter.com/2sjXUZLH3f
— The Rushmore Academy (@rushmoreacademy) December 30, 2023
Wes-inspired Tattoos, episode 1
I’m not into tats (the misses is), but these are marvelous. If you have or see one, send it along to edwardappleby@yankeeracers.org!
Click through for more.
Moonrise Kingdom reunion in Tuscany
From Edward Norton’s Instagram account:
When we made ‘Moonrise Kingdom’, Wes, Roman, Jason, Bill Murray and I all shared a big old house in Newport. It was about as fun as it gets. Like making home movies with your friends in middle school, except it ends up Opening Night at Cannes. We didn’t want it to end so after the premiere we went to Italy for a hang and we’ve kept it up. ‘Grand Budapest’ got handed out for a read the first summer and ‘Isle of Dogs’ was outlined the next. Bill wasn’t with us this summer but we wore his #WilliamMurrayGolf shirts to infuse the idyll with his spirit of fun. And #BMW loaned us incredible rides to get the growing families over the dusty bumpy Tuscan roads to gelato at the town on the hill. If I had to get stranded with a group on an island, I could make it work with these cats.
“Moonrise Kingdom”reunion. Details & pics here: https://t.co/n2TuV1PwBo Thanks to #BMW for helping us get to gelato over dusty Tuscan roads pic.twitter.com/TC7KcantnI
— Edward Norton (@EdwardNorton) July 19, 2017
Matt Zoller Seitz’s GBH book a “Summer Beach Read for Movie Lovers”
From Tribeca:
The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel, by Matt Zoller Seitz (Abrams)
Make this one a two-for-one deal and also pick up esteemed film/TV critic Matt Zoller Seitz’ 2013 book The Wes Anderson Collection, in which Seitz interviews Anderson about all of his pre-Budapest movies. This one, of course, is all about the Oscar-nominated 2014 movie, and like its predecessor, The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel also features a wealth of behind-the-scenes photos and an overall gorgeous layout. It’s eye candy for the brain.
Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe
Apparently The Grand Budapest Hotel has restored Stefan Zweig’s (The Author whose work the movie is loosely based on) fame to it’s past glory, as earlier this summer German director Maria Schrader’s movie titled “Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe” has premiered in Germany. As of yet not much is known about when the film might see the light of day outside of Germany, there isn’t even a trailer with English subtitles, but the film has been placed on a shortlist of films that that could be selected as the German submission for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards.
The film has so far received good reviews in Germany, though none have been published so far in English. Hopefully this film gets picked up by the international press as it deserves to be, and maybe even nominated for the Award, even if just for the reason that it’ll be shown in more countries then.
Wes Anderson + literary
The Academy Awards are coming
The Academy Awards are tomorrow and, as you know, Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel has 9 nominations. Even when it’s not the movie that everyone expect to win (Birdman and Boyhood are the titles that sound mostly as the winners), remember that it won at the Writers Guild Awards and 5 BAFTAs (Make Up & Hair, Original Music, Original Screenplay, Costume Design and Production Design) which it could mean that the movie is going to have a good night, even if it doesn’t win in the main cathegory.
Why he deserves to win? I think the main reason is that he has always been faithful to his style. Even when his movies have been as much loved as hated by people, he never changed. The Grand Budapest Hotel is a 100% Wes Anderson movie and the people couldn’t help fall inlove with it and that’s why, even when it is one of the earliest released of the nominated movies, it is one of the most nominated and celebrated.
Surprise after the jump!