Swingers: Brooklyn Heights

Today we’ve got an update on Moonrise Kingdom, the next project for yellow text-loving ascot enthusiast Wes Anderson and his cabal of quip-spewing indie rock glibsters.  Not surprisingly, it’s set to star Anderson BFFs Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman, who, although he’s way too effeminate to be playing Jonathan Ames on Bored to Death, is the perfect muse for a dapper intellectual with a fondness for vintage suits.  Here’s the rest of the rundown:

The local Rhode Island casting agency LDI Casting has revealed that “Ed Norton, Frances McDormand and Jason Schwartzman will join Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton and Bill Murray.”

The screenplay was written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola (who also co-wrote The Darjeeling Limited).

[The film] is set in the 60s. Two young adults fall in love and run away. Leaders in their New England town are sticking the idea that they’ve disappeared and 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, a regular in Anderson films, will play the girl’s father, who has his own issues. [/Film]

Now that is a cast.  It’s like Valentine’s Day for non-idiots. Anyway, it’s always tempting to bash Wes Anderson for his Fauntleroy-esque looks and popularity among obnoxious hipsters, but the truth is that he’s made some amazing movies, including his last one (Fantastic Mr. Fox).  He’s always a brilliant production designer, but the X-factor seems to be the writing.  He’s credited on all his movies as co-writer with a rotating partner — Owen Wilson on Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and Royal Tenenbaums, Noah Baumbach on Life Aquatic and Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Roman Coppola on Darjeeling Limited.  I’m not thrilled that he went back to the writer of his worst movie, or that he’s doing his first period piece, since you know those two are going to spend 90% of their pre-production time picking out skinny ties.  But based on the cast, I’ve got my fingers crossed. Over the sleeve of my soy chai.

Hipster visionary Wes Anderson is back at work on another of his delightfully quirky comedies, as he once again has the greatest man alive, Bill Murray, headlining his latest project, Moon Rise Kingdom. The film is about a love-crazed teenage couple that runs off together, leaving the town’s adults in a state of frantic unrest as they think the worst has happened to them. It’s like that time that I eloped with Diora Baird and then everyone got all crazy as soon as terms like “chloroform” and “duct tape” were thrown around.

Murray is tentatively set to be joined by another all-star cast, as Anderson is known for, with Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Bruce Willis currently in talks. Norton, I assume, will also take over writing and directing duties, single-handedly edit the film using only scissors and his saliva and then package the movie for release in 72.6 million theaters in New York City alone. He’s the most versatile man in show business, folks.

Tell us a little bit about this next quirk-filled Anderson project, Moviefone:

Written by Anderson and Roman Coppola, the film will be a sixties-set story about two kids who fall in love and run away. Obviously, none of the above players are the kids. Rather, after the lovers flee, the leaders of their New England hometown stick with the idea that they’ve disappeared instead, and try to search for them. Should everyone sign on the dotted line: Norton gets to play a scout leader who brings his scouts on the search, Willis is the town sheriff who is having an affair with the missing girl’s mom (McDormand) and leading his own searches, and Murray will play the girl’s father. That leaves Swinton, without a role mentioned — perhaps she’s the mother of the boy?

Call him a hipster visionary all you want – because I already did – but Anderson makes a damn entertaining film. I didn’t care for The Darjeeling Limited when I first saw it at my local cinema and arthouse, but after I watched it again on DVD, I enjoyed it plenty more. And I don’t care what anyone says, Life Aquatic was a masterpiece. You know what else is a masterpiece?

*points to crotch, flips scarf, rides away on women’s beach cruiser*

Though his name sounds like a locker-room fungus, Jim Jarmusch is actually the critically-acclaimed director of Down by Law and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.  The trailer for his latest, The Limits of the Control, is after the jump.  It’s got an all star cast and revolves around a loner criminal in Spain.  Trailer doesn’t reveal much about the plot, just characters delivering hard-boiled crypticisms like:

“Sometimes the reflection is far more present than the thing being reflected.”

What a coincidence, I was making a dismissive wank motion in the mirror when you said that.
Read the rest of this entry »

The first official stills from Burn After Reading, the Coen brothers project set to open in September, have hit the web.  Everyone in them looks in some way perplexed.  The movie stars Brad Pitt, George Clooney, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton (the awesome Oscar speech giver), and Frances McDormand. 

Burn centers on Osbourne Cox (Malkovich), who has hit a bit of rough patch. He was recently fired from the CIA and decides to write his memoirs, naturally documenting government secrets along the way. His wife (Swinton) decides to steal the material to use in their upcoming divorce proceedings, but the CD mistakenly ends up in the hands of two doltish gym employees, Chad (Pitt) and Linda (McDormand). In response to Linda and Chad conspiring to sell the material to help pay for Linda’s plastic surgery, the CIA dispatches Harry (Clooney) to sort it all out at whatever the cost. [FirstShowing]

A guy named Brad playing a guy named Chad?  I dunno, seems like a stretch.  Anyway, I would definitely bone this movie.   In other news, be on the look out for Paris Hilton’s next project, Burn After Peeing. [Thanks to Eib for the tip]

The new trailer for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian came out today (video after the jump).

Opening May 16th and starring Liam Neeson, Tilda Swinton, and the poor man’s Orlando Bloom, the second installment of the Narnia series ratchets up the adventurasy with lions and knights and witches and crap.  I predict it will be a high-energy thrill ride that’s fun for whole families of stoned dudes.  But what do I know, I’m just a cocksure movie blogger who leads with his fists, and often, with his heart.

Now if you’ll excuse me, Aslan is on the move.

[Thanks to Ohad for the tip]