Among the few possessions he left to his heirs was a set of Encyclopedia Britannica in storage at the Lindbergh Palace Hotel under the names Ari and Uzi Tenenbaum.
In November, art and memorabilia from the collection of Gene Hackman (1930-2025) were auctioned by Bonhams in New York and Los Angeles.
Known for its meticulously considered DVD releases, Criterion outdid itself with its new 20-disc Wes Anderson collection. Containing the director’s first 10 films on 4K UHD DVD, the Anderson Archive brings the auteur’s precise design sensibilities to this stunning box set. At $400, the price dares potential purchasers to wait for one of Criterion’s many 50% off sales. Still, with the holidays around the corner, it’s a hefty, luxurious gift for the extremely lucky Anderson fanatic in anyone’s life, or the perfect start to a burgeoning cinephile’s physical media collection. We highlighted the collection back in the fall, but it bears repeating: This set contains new 4K masters of the director’s first 25 years of output, running from his early breakout Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and Royal Tenenbaums through 2021’s The French Dispatch. His two stop-motion features, Isle Of Dogs and The Fantastic Mr. Fox, appear alongside 25 hours of special features, 10 illustrated books, and new essays from writers Richard Brody, Bilge Ebiri, and Moeko Fujii, as well as filmmakers James L. Brooks and Martin Scorsese. Could we ask for anything else? Sure, Asteroid City and The Phoenician Scheme. For now, this is most satisfactory.
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
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.’”
Royal: Look, I know I’m going to be the bad guy on this one, but I just want to say the last six days have been the best six days of probably my whole life.
Narrator: Immediately after making this statement, Royal realized that it was true.
