New York Magazine Interviews Wes, Tells Him About ‘Battleship’

New York Magazine‘s entertainment blog Vulture had a chance to speak with Wes and Cannes, and it’s definitely worth a read. They touch on the new European set film Wes is working on, and there’s a particularly amusing bit regarding the movie Battleship. Read the full interview here, and after the jump.

It’s hard to believe that Wes Anderson is a newcomer to the Cannes Film Festival, since his deadpan verve and Tati-influenced comic tableaus seem tailor-made for fine French sensibilities. Still, better late than never, as Anderson has finally made it to the fest with his latest film Moonrise Kingdom, a starry comedy about two 12-year-olds who fall in love and run away together (with a motley crew of concerned parents and peeved scouting troops in hot pursuit). Vulture sat down with the ivory-suited Anderson on the Croisette today to discuss the making of the movie, the legacy of The Royal Tenenbaums, and the blockbuster movie he’s only just heard of.

It’s unusual to get a movie from you outside of the fall-winter movie season. Are you becoming a summer movie auteur?
[Laughs.] Yes! That’s why it’s my first time at Cannes, actually. I’ve never had the chance to even try to get a movie here before because it’s always been ready at the wrong time. Have you been here many times?

No, this is my first time.
It’s interesting, isn’t it? You really feel they have a way of doing things here. They have a lot of rituals in place here, at least when you present a movie.

How so?
There’s a whole choreography to the opening night, a whole manner of moving, stopping, and turning, and I never knew exactly what was going on. I walked into the theater, I was being led by a cameraman, and as I entered I realized I was being projected onto the screen, gigantically, and then I realized that 2,000 people had been watching me in the auditorium the whole time while I was videoing things with my phone. Anyway!

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New York Magazine: “Is Wes Anderson Changing the Ending of Fantastic Mr. Fox?”

The New York Magazine entertainment blog, on the heels of The Playlist, wonders if Wes has changed the ending to Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. For one thing, we should consider the source: an anonymous message board post (see the post in question here).  And, a correction: these observations are not from the Sunday screening in New Jersey but an earlier one (check the date on the message!).

Wes Anderson’s hugely anticipated stop-motion film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox screened for a New Jersey test audience yesterday. How was it? “Very good,” says an anonymous message-board critic with a devil-may-care attitude about signed nondisclosure agreements. There is something slightly troubling, though. From the review:

“The plot itself doesn’t deviate from the book that much. At the moment they’ve changed the ending slightly from the book, but from the feedback we gave in the discussion at the end, it wasn’t particularly popular (although I personally thought it was quite good), so they may do something completely different with it.”

What could Anderson have possibly changed? And what makes his new ending so odious? Did he shoehorn in an Anderson-esque scene in which the three farmers are all simultaneously reunited with their fathers? Is there an egregious use of sixties Britpop? We’re getting worried!