Category: Yankee Racers

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Yankee Racers: Fantastic Mr. Fox

From stretch:

Darjeeling was a lot lower budget, and I feel like Fox didn’t expect huge numbers from it.

It appears with Mr Fox, that they’re going to carefully place the release date. I think this bodes well, and I think Wes’s meticulous attention to detail will translate well to clay (or whatever they use — models). I really hope Mr Fox can be upper echelon stop motion — approaching Nightmare Before Christmas status.

Certainly, Wes has accumulated more fans with each film, so all those people will be interested. What do you think Mr Fox needs to be? Light? Detailed? Epic? Rated G?

Join the discussion.

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Twitter, the Yankee Racers, and the Wes Anderson Film Festival

The Rushmore Academy now has over 100 followers on Twitter. Follow us!

Because of a recent onslaught of spamming, automatic activation of new accounts on the Yankee Racers forum has been temporarily suspended. In order to activate your account, send an e-mail to edwardappleby @ yankeeracers.org (no spaces).  We encourage you to drop by the forum.

If you are in the Dayton (Ohio) area, be sure to stop by the Dayton Dirt Collective for a screening of Rushmore on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. (details).

BONUS DISC: a Wes-inspired design project.


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Yankee Racers registration

New user registration on the Yankee Racers forum will require moderator activation until further notice.

Please e-mail edwardappleby @ yankeeracers.org from the registered e-mail address to expedite this process.

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Wes in Gwen’s Goop and directing “First Grade Journal” (a parody)

Jessica over at the Yankee Racers forum posted this tidbit a while ago, but I never shared it on the site. On her very cool site GOOP, Gwyneth Paltrow (The Royal Tenenbaums) recently asked “five brilliant directors (four of whom I have worked with and one who I worship) to share their top five DVD rental picks.”

Wesley Wales Anderson answered as follows:

Wes’ Picks:
(Wes Anderson directed Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, etc. He is one of the most specific directors I have ever worked with. When I played Margot in The Royal Tenenbaums, he knew exactly how he wanted my hair, clothes and eye makeup. He is so inspiring to work with because you feel like you are the one crazy, important color he needs to create the whole picture. Also, he is a great dresser.)

Terror’s Advocate
Barbet Schroeder’s great documentary, Terror’s Advocate, also relates to another one I would highly recommend, which is Marcel Ophüls’ documentary Hôtel Terminus (except I think you can only get it on VHS). There is kind of a miniature version of Terror’s Advocate in the middle of it.

Neon Genesis Evangelion
This is a Japanese cartoon that is very difficult to describe and might not sound that great if I tried anyway. It is 24 episodes, and we watched them all in less than a week because you start to want to believe it’s real. This could spawn something like Scientology.

From the Life of Marionettes
I’d never heard of this until last month. It’s an Ingmar Bergman movie he made in Germany where I think he was a tax exile.

Life Lessons
The Martin Scorsese part of New York Stories. It’s about a painter.

More or less anything that says The Criterion Collection across the top it. The most recent one I had never seen before and loved was Costa-Gavras’ Missing.

The folks over at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade have made a parody of Wes’ filmmaking (The Royal Tenenbaums, specifically). I can’t decide if I think it is funny or not.

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Site updates

this-is-an-adventure

First, great news: our Facebook group has reached 1,000 members! Show your school spirit and join!

You can now follow us on Twitter @rushmoreacademy.com.

We are organizing a Wes Anderson Film Festival. A few years back, a group of Yankee Racers met online and watched the films of Wes Anderson together. We are doing it again and need your feedback!

More news:

  • The gallery is back up and working. Send your images and scans to edwardappleby @ yankeeracers.org!
  • The film scripts, press kits, and credits are now available in the library.
  • In addition to the normal radio station powered by last.fm, we have added a second channel of music from our Academy Books Music Room (sponsored by Amazon).

And, don’t forget that the Wes Webicon contest is still on!  I will post some new entries later today.

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Wes Anderson Film Festival?

A few years back, some of the Yankee Racers organized a Wes Anderson Film Festival.

We want to try it again. We would put up a chat room, meet at a designated time, and press play simultaneously. What do you think? What film should we watch together first?

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Two silent shorts by a Yankee Racer

Yankee Racer RunBuckleyRun just posted his/er two silent shorts on the forum, presented here for your viewing pleasure. Discussion here.

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Mailbag, and the newest Paste

First, join our new Facebook group. That, or sudden death academic probation. Your choice.

An unpaid intern from two.one.five magazine sent us this interview with Wes. Thank you, intern.

One Severus Snape (Alan Rickman, I hope) has asked that I tell you about the new World of Owen site and a new Wilson Brothers’ forum called The Soil Room. I don’t get it either, but good projects.

The new Paste magazine has a brief discussion of the new Harold and Maude soundtrack (pg. 36-37). I would be really excited, but it is only available on LP. Max Fischer is compared to Harold in a lovely chart, “Modern-Day Harolds Revealed”:

Gawky? Not really. Pale? A lighter shade of olive. Bowl cut? No, dad’s a barber. Fixation? Extra-curricular. Overly formal everyday attire? Yes, quite natty. Unusual transportation? Go-cart, bicycle Unlawful behavior? Slices Herman Blume’s brake cables Inappropriate love interest? His tutor, Rosemary Cross Overbearing parent? No, but don’t piss of Dr. Guggenheim Histrionics? Aquarium-building, theatrical-epic-producing Single-artist soundtrack? Various artists, various awesome Cat Stevens? “The Wind,” “Here Comes My Baby” A threat? Marginally — a little too pulled-together, though he does have a way with fake blood

Finally! — after joining the Facebook group, head over to the Yankee Racers forum: vote in the Oscar poll, offer your worst film of the year, talk about Juno, or start your own thread. Hundreds of threads full of Wes-knowledge and discussion…

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Charlie Rose rewind; and Yankee Racers threads

Tonight, watching the Jerry Seinfeld interview with Charlie Rose made me think: I ought to revisit Charlie’s interviews with Wes. So, for your viewing pleasure, here are all three (see the end for some great Yankee Racers threads).

26 October 2007:

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15 December 2004:

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29 January 1999:

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Suggested threads at the Yankee Racers forum:
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
DVD (The Darjeeling Limited)
Why is Bill Smiling? (The Life Aquatic)
I’ve set up TRT on continual loop in my apartment
Last movie you saw?