Friday, November 12, 2010

What will Wes Anderson's next movie look like?

I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that with Wes Anderson about to get busy on a new movie, there are plenty of stars ready to sign up for it. And in even better news, unlike the disastrous "Darjeeling Limited," it seems like this one might even have a proper story behind it.

Anderson is expected to start shooting his next film, "Moonrise Kingdom," in the spring, and he's apparently in negotiations with regular partner in crime and funniest man alive Bill Murray, plus Frances McDormand, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton and even Bruce Willis.

And even though he's again working with co-writer Roman Coppola, who was with him for "Darjeeling Limited" (sorry to keep bringing it up, but I really hated that movie), it indeed sounds like this flick will have something actually going on in it.

In a story set in the late 1960s, two young adults fall in love and run away, and leaders in their New England town go in search of them. Norton will play a scout leader who brings his charges on a search. Willis is in talks to play the town sheriff who’s also looking, and who is having an affair with the missing girl’s mother, the role McDormand is in talks to play. Murray will play the girl’s father, who has his own issues.

Oooohh, drama. Since Anderson has managed to make four movies I have nothing but love for with "Bottle Rocket," "Rushmore," "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (and also two real duds, but enough about that), I'll definitely be keeping track of this one, so stay tuned for more on this soon.

A fairly short report today because, after all, I am on vacation (but, of course, watching movies, since I'm at the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival.) The only other real bit of news before a couple of clips today is something that just makes me giddy: The Muppets movie taking shape painfully slowly is finally starting to line up some seriously funny people.

Along with writing the movie, Jason Segel, of course, gets to cast himself as the main human in this operation, and it's already been announced that he'll be joined by Amy Adams, as his girlfriend (rough gig for Segel, eh?), and Chris Cooper as the big bad, an oil man who wants to drill below the Muppets' theater. But now surrounding them is when things are starting to get really good.

Lady Gaga will make an appearance (why not?), and her entourage will be made up of veryfunnyguys Ed Helms, John Krasinski and Eric Overstreet (a recent Emmy winner, and deservedly so, for "Modern Family"). Also in the mix will be Jack Black, Paul Rudd and "Community" uberfunnyman Donald Glover in unspecified roles, Jane Lynch as a prison guard and Danny Trejo as her prisoner (why a prison guard would have a personal prisoner I don't know, but anything can happen with the Muppets!), and Zach Galifianakis as Hobo Joe.

Whew. Is that enough funny for you? The flick, being directed by James Bobin of "Flight of the Conchords," isn't set to come out until two Christmases from now, but you can already count me as thoroughly psyched for this.

OK, that's all the real news I have today, so here are couple of clips to wrap things up. First up comes the first trailer I've seen for "Barney's Version," based on the comic novel by Mordechai Richler and, thankfully, starring Paul Giamatti. The story is about the life of the titular Barney, or at least his version of it, which includes three wives, two continents and any number of possibly true adventures. It's probably much better than I'm making it sound here. Enjoy the trailer and keep an eye out for this in at least some corners of the world Jan. 14.



And I'll leave you today with the trailer for a magical movie I saw last night here in Rehoboth, a 2009 Indian movie titled "Harishchandrachi Factory." Directed by Paresh Mokashi, it's a humorous look at the life of impossible dreamer Dabasaheb Phalke who, in 1913, made "Raja Harishchandra," thus launching India's feature film industry. It really is a movie made for people who love movies, and though I have no idea if it's coming to DVD in the Western world any time soon, definitely see it if you get a chance. Unfortunately, this trailer was the only one I could find that has the English subtitles, but it also has a truly unfortunate voiceover. It still gives you an idea of the spirit of this great movie, so enjoy the clip, and have a great weekend (and if you happen to live in Macon, of course, please go see the Macon Film Guild's presentation of my favorite flick of 2010, "Winter's Bone," Sunday at 2, 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the Douglass Theatre.) Peace out.

4 comments:

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Anonymous said...

I loved The Darjeeling Limited! What was it about that movie that you didn't like?

Thanks for the post, I'm excited about Wes's new movie. Sounds like it will be a stellar cast.

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Anonymous said...

after reading "disastrous darjeeling limited" i stopped reading. thats in my opinion his best movie to date.

Bobafett said...

if you are saying that Life Aquatic was a dud, then you are stupid. i have not disliked a Wes Anderson movie yet.