Category: Films

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No Fantastic Mr. Fox at Comic-Con?

There was some speculation that Fox might “spring the first Fox footage” at the 2009 Comic-Con International in San Diego (July 22-26).

/film reports that such a reveal appears rather unlikely now (“What You Probably Won’t See at Comic-Con 2009”):

Now that the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday schedules have been announced for the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International, lets take a look at some of the films that won’t be making an appearance at the convention…

20th Century Fox’s teen horror film Jennifer’s Body and Wes Anderson’s animated film Fantastic Mr. Fox are oddly missing…

Of course, the below list is subject to change. Panels and projects could be added, or surprise appearances might be made (for instance, Warner Bros has a panel where they could surprise with Ninja Assassin). Also, some of these films might very well have a show floor presence, advertising presence (District 9 was all over last year’s Con), or viral marketing launch at the Con. But judging from the officially announced schedule, this is the list of movies that won’t have a panel presence at the Con.

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Francis Ford Coppola = Max Fischer

francis-ford-coppola-0809-lg-2

From the Esquire interview with Francis Ford Coppola:

When I was sixteen or seventeen, I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a playwright. But everything I wrote, I thought, was weak. And I can remember falling asleep in tears because I had no talent the way I wanted to have.

Did you ever see Rushmore? I was just like that kid.

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July Wes Anderson Film Festival in Dover, OH: next up, Rushmore

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More news from Italy…

From ANSA.it:

Rome, July 6 – George Clooney will be in L’Aquila during this week’s Group of Eight summit to show his support for earthquake victims.

The actor, a prominent human rights campaigner who has a house on Lake Como, will meet locals who have been living in tents at the small town of San Demetrio since the April 6 quake that killed 300 people and left thousands homeless.

Along with Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams, Clooney will inaugurate a new cinema in San Demetrio.

The initiative is co-sponsored by the Secretariat of Nobel Peace Prize Summits, an organisation set up in 1999 by then Rome mayor Walter Veltroni and the Mikhail Gorbachev Foundation.

Veltroni, who recently resigned as head of Italy’s largest opposition party, will be on hand for the ceremony, which is also being sponsored by Twentieth Century Fox, the producers of Clooney’s latest film.

The cinema, which will be called the Nobel for Peace Hall, will house other facilities for the local community.

After the inauguration, the cinema will show some pre-release clips from Fantastic Mr Fox, an animated adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic directed by Wes Anderson and voiced by Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman.

This will be followed by the Italian premiere of [ ] Ice Age 3. Clooney, who is known for his activism on the Darfur crisis, joined friend Brad Pitt in an Africa aid appeal at the 2005 G8 summit in Scotland and was handed a special award at the 2007 World Summit of Peace Prize Laureates.

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Fantastic Mr. Fox at the Venice International Film Festival?


(Wes at the 64th Venice Film Festival for The Darjeeling Limited)

It looks that Fantastic Mr. Fox may be screened at this year’s Venice International Film Festival, September 2-12 (story in Italian).

More soon… Thanks to Liisa.

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When will we get our Fantastic Mr. Fox fix?

Some wisdom from slashfilm:

Originally there were rumors that the first trailer for Wes Anderson’s animated Fantastic Mr. Fox would be attached to Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. As you’ve probably figured out by now, the trailer was not attached. So right now, I have no idea when the trailer will hit. Anyone have any ideas? The movie isn’t scheduled to hit theaters until mid-November so there is still a lot of time. The next possible sighting would be Fox’s hybrid Aliens in the Attic on July 31st.

The kids over at IMDB similarly wonder out loud:

I think the best bets are Harry Potter (highly unlikely), G-Force (also unlikely), and Aliens in the Attic (probably the best bet seeing as how it’s the same studio.)

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Official word: No Mr. Fox trailer today

Sorry, kids.

It isn’t done yet.

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From the vault: “Welcome to the Dahl House”

“Welcome to the Dahl House”
August 18th, 2002 – New York Times
By Wes Anderson

My brothers and I grew up reading Roald Dahl’s stories. Our mother had gotten us nameplates to put in our books, and we used to steal one another’s copies of ”Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and ”The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” tear out the other’s nameplates and replace them with our own. Dahl was our favorite.

For me the best were ”Danny the Champion of the World” and ”Fantastic Mr. Fox.”

Last year I decided to find out what it would take to make a movie from ”Mr. Fox.” I arranged to meet with Dahl’s wife, Felicity, or Liccy, who runs the Dahl estate and helps to produce the films, operas, etc., that have come from his books.

She is a very charming and energetic woman, with an infectious enthusiasm for her husband’s work. She invited me to Gipsy House. I knew about Dahl’s residence in Great Missenden near Oxford, and I was especially eager to see the tiny hut where he wrote for four hours each day in an armchair with a green-felt-upholstered board across his lap for a desk.

Continue reading “From the vault: “Welcome to the Dahl House””

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The Life Aquatic with Orbit

Homage or rip-off?

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Wes and Jarvis talk Mr. Fox in the new issue of Interview

In this month’s issue of Interview (June 2009, Björk on the cover), Wes Anderson interviews (more of a discussion between close friends than an interview) Fantastic Mr. Fox collaborator Jarvis Cocker. Be sure to pick up a copy at your local newsstand!

Jarvis: I wanted to ask you something, actually. It’s an obvious question, I suppose, but on the film that you’re making now, Fantastic Mr. Fox, you’re using old puppets — well, do you call them puppets? What do you call them?

Wes: I think puppets more or less covers it.

Jarvis: So you’re used to working with live actors. How have you found the experience of working with things that will do exactly what you tell them to do?

Wes: Well, as it happens, they won’t. As you know, the voices are recorded before it’s animated, and that process is more familiar to me — working with actors in that way. So when we’re recording the voices, there can be the same sort of excitement that working with actors normally has — there can be the same surprises and spontaneity. But then when it comes time to animate it, I’m working with people who each bring their own interpretations to it, even if we have very carefully determined what is going to happen in the scene. Sometimes I will do a video version of myself doing what I think the puppet ought to do, and then I’ll discuss it with the animator — and there are many different animators working on different stages all at once. But in the process of going one frame at a time to bring the puppet to life, the animator will sort of sculpt things out, and they have somehow trained their brains to sync in this ultra slow-motion so there’s a performance that they’re giving. And so you can find in that process that you’re going very slowly being pleasantly surprised over the course of several days or weeks and saying, “Oh, look at what’s happening here…” Or you can slowly see the shot falling apart before your eyes and see that it’s not working. So there’s no real corollary in live-action movies, but it’s interesting anyway — and fun.

Jarvis: So the animators are kind of the nearest thing you get to actors in that process, basically.

Wes: They’re the nearest thing you get to working with actors in a sense, yeah.

Continue reading “Wes and Jarvis talk Mr. Fox in the new issue of Interview”