The World of Wes Anderson
“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.
We’re added songs from The French Dispatch soundtrack and Chansons d’Ennui by Jarvis Cocker as Tip-Top!
Wes, Alexandre Desplat, Jarvis Cocker, and the London Oratory School Schola
Sounding Fantastic. If the trailers for Wes Anderson‘s stop-motion-animation adaptation of the Roald Dahl children’s book Fantastic Mr. Fox aren’t enough to suggest great stuff ahead (the film opens Nov. 20), the sound track should clinch the deal. An integral component of the writer/director’s movies thus far (think John Lennon‘s “Oh Yoko!” in Rushmore, Nick Drake‘s “Fly” in The Royal Tenenbaums), the collection of songs and tunes for Fantastic Mr. Fox includes such furry numbers as “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” from the Wellingtons, two from the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones‘ “Street Fighting Man,” and a handful of Burl Ives incantations – yes, Burl Ives! – guaranteed to spark a Burl revival. Throw in some Art Tatum, Jarvis Cocker, and Bobby Fuller Four, plus beautiful instrumental sketches from French composer Alexandre Desplat, and you have one of the loveliest, most eccentric sound tracks to come along since – well, since Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited. (Philadelphia Inquirer, October 25, 2009)
Watch our slideshow of the Fantastic Mr. Fox premiere in London
Includes photos from The Gap on Regent Street courtesy of jazzt. All photos copyright their respective owners.
Transcribed by iFlicks:
George and Wes – what was the appeal of Fantastic Mr Fox? Why did you want to work on a film, particularly a stop-motion animation, based on that book?
WA: Well, we all grew up with Roald Dahl’s writing. Fantastic Mr Fox was the first book I owned, so it made an impression upon me. I always wanted to adapt the book as stop-motion, using puppets with fur, because there’s something sort of magical about that.
GC: I just did it for the paycheck. The money. [Laughs] But it was also the chance to work with Wes, which really appealed to me.
George, in what ways do you identify with the character of Mr Fox? What did you think of him as a fox?
GC: What I thought of him…as a fox? [Laughs] Well, he’s an optimist, which was really fun to play. I had a lot of fun on the film, working with such a great cast. I didn’t enjoy working with Bill, though. There was a lot of hatred there at first. We’re okay now, though.
Continue reading “Fantastic Mr. Fox press conference transcript”
The Press Conference and Premiere, 14 October 2009 (more as they come in)
Sources: HuffPost , Getty, @eldiabolik, @BFI, Mark Romanek (via Edgar Wright), @debbsperks
From the Observer (UK):
“I can’t act so it’s just as well they had a puppet to do it,” says Jarvis Cocker of his proper film debut, in Wes Anderson’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox. “The puppet gives a much less wooden performance than I would.”
Fantastic Mr Fox. “The puppet gives a much less wooden performance than I would.”
Cocker voices Petey, one of the few human characters, his role the result of meeting director Anderson when DJing with Pulp bassist Steve Mackey in Paris at the wrap party for Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. “When he’d written the script, he’d also written the words for this song and he asked if I’d do the music for it. Which was quite nice for me ’cause usually when I get asked to do things it’s the other way round – they want me to do the words.” Cocker discounts his previous film appearance, as part of band the Wyrd Sisters in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, as “more like prancing around on stage”.
Early versions of Fantastic Mr Fox cast him as an onscreen narrator but US test audiences were baffled. “I may turn up as a DVD extra in the future,” he opines.
