By For his 2018 stop-motion masterpiece, Isle of Dogs, Wes Anderson strayed away from soft pastels, stylish clothing and whimsical dollhouse sets while still focusing on dysfunctional families and the winning formula of Bill Murray and Frances McDormand. But for his next project he returns to live-action and his distinctive visual style in a film packed with an all-star cast, stylish wardrobes and, no doubt, pithy one-liners.
The French Dispatch, is a "love letter to journalism" inspired by the director's love of the New Yorker magazine. It takes its name from a fictional American magazine published in a French city during the 20th Century. The film focuses on three different storylines and brings together the tales published in the magazine.
In the trailer we hear how French Dispatch editor Arthur Howitzer Jr. transformed a "series of travelogue columns" into the esteemed magazine, covering world politics, the arts high and low, and stories of human interest.
The cast sees Anderson reunited with his trusty stable of actors including Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Léa Seydoux, Willem Dafoe and Saoirse Ronan. There's also new names to the world of Wes, including Timothée Chalamet, Elizabeth Moss, Christoph Waltz and Benicio Del Toro.
Murray plays Howitzer, the editor of the French Dispatch, based on Harold Ross, the co-founder of The New Yorker, while Swinton, McDormand and Wilson all play various journalists and staff writers. Chalamet plays Zeffirelli, a student revolutionary who McDormand's character Lucinda Krementz profiles in the magazine. Brody is Julien Cadazio, an art dealer, based on Lord Duveen, an art dealer that was featured in a six-part New Yorker story, while Léa Seydoux plays Simone, a prison guard and his muse.
There's also a newly-released poster which features the cast members in Anderson's typical dollhouse design, from a beret-wearing Owen Wilson to Timothée Chalamet's character in the bath, perhaps a callback to Margot Tenembaum's iconic scenes where she smoked in the bath.
Though it looks like a celebration of journalism, when speaking to French publication Charente Libre in 2019, Anderson noted: "The story is not easy to explain, [It’s about an] American journalist based in France [who] creates his magazine. It is more a portrait of this man, of this journalist who fights to write what he wants to write. It’s not a movie about freedom of the press, but when you talk about reporters you also talk about what’s going on in the real world."
The score will be done by Alexandre Desplat, the composer who won an Oscar for his work on The Shape Of Water and for Anderson's film The Grand Budapest Hotel
The French Dispatch is released 24 July
