I still miss Wes Anderson’s old look. When he dressed and did his hair like a character from Revenge of the Nerds. I can’t really blame him for wanting to get away from that, though I also miss the filmmaker he was at that time too. Rushmore is one of my favorite movies, and I have lesser but similar love for Bottle Rocket and The Royal Tenenbaums. Then he kind of went off the reservation, for my tastes. Life Acquatic seemed to appeal to those who mostly loved Anderson for his twee and affected stylistics, and I’m not sure if Darjeeling Limited appealed to anyone except the most diehard Andersonites. Then just as I was getting ready to stop caring about the man, he went and did The Fantastic Mr. Fox.
At this point it is hard to tell if that was an anomaly caused by the constraints and limitations of animation, or if Darjeeling was simply the inevitable low point in the career of a brilliant filmmaker before he reboots and stops jerking himself off. I’d like to be optimistic, but it doesn’t get me very excited to hear that he’s writing the script for his next feature, Moonrise Kingdom, with Roman Coppola, his co-writer on Darjeeling. I keep hoping he’ll re-team with Owen Wilson – with whom he had his greatest live-action creative successes, in my opinion.
But I’m just rambling now. /Film reports that some old casting rumors have now been confirmed for Moonrise. Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Anderson’s muse, Bill Murray, will be starring in the film, along with the newly added Anderson regular player, Jason Schwartzman.
The story of the film is such:
[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. [via Deadline]
There is no news on who will play the young lovers yet.