Here Are 38 Things You Might Not Know About Wes Anderson's Movies
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If you're a Wes Anderson fan, you know that there's a lot going on in his films — both on and offscreen.
Here are some things you might not know about his movies:
1.As of early 2022, Anderson has directed 10 feature films.
Buena Vista Pictures / Via giphy.com
They are:
Bottle Rocket (1996)
Rushmore (1998)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)
The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Isle of Dogs (2018)
The French Dispatch (2021)
2.Of those 10 films, seven include his signature slow-motion scenes.
3.Three of Anderson's movies have narrators.
20th Century Fox
Alec Baldwin narrated The Royal Tenenbaums, Bob Balaban narrated Moonrise Kingdom, and Anjelica Huston narrated The French Dispatch.
4.Anderson tends to work with the same people again and again.
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Many of the stars of his films have appeared in more than half of them.
5.The same goes for costume designers.
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Karen Flack served as costume designer on his first three movies, and Milena Canonero worked on the rest of his live-action movies, minus Moonrise Kingdom.
6.There's also a reason so many of Anderson's films have a signature sound.
20th Century Fox / Via giphy.com
Alexandre Desplat has scored each of them since Fantastic Mr. Fox, and he's scoring Anderson's next movie, Asteroid City, as well.
7.And all but four of Anderson's movies share a casting director too.
Fox Searchlight Pictures / Via giphy.com
Douglas Aibel did casting for each movie except Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Darjeeling Limited, and Fantastic Mr. Fox.
8.Anderson's films have received 15 Academy Award nominations and 4 wins over the past 20 years.
Fox Searchlight Pictures / Via giphy.com
The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Isle of Dogs were all nominated, and The Grand Budapest Hotel took home Oscars for Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, and Best Production Design.
9.Wes Anderson and his frequent collaborator, Owen Wilson, met in 1989 at the University of Texas.
10.In 1996, they released the full-length version of that short, also called Bottle Rocket.
Sony Pictures
It was the first of Anderson's feature films.
11.All three Wilson brothers — Owen, Luke, and Andrew — were involved in the first three of Anderson's movies.
While they all had roles in Bottle Rocket and The Royal Tenenbaums, Owen stuck to co-writing rather than acting in Rushmore.
12.In Rushmore, Rosemary is romantically linked to two of the Wilson brothers.
Owen Wilson appeared in photos as Rosemary's late husband, and Luke Wilson plays her boyfriend, Peter.
13.According to the Rushmore DVD commentary, Wes Anderson originally envisioned someone like Noah Taylor — "a young Mick Jagger [with] that slightly uncooked look" — for the role of Max Fischer.
While the role ultimately went to Jason Schwartzman, Taylor ended up working with Anderson in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.
14.Jason Schwartzman auditioned for Rushmore wearing a prep school blazer emblazoned with a DIY Rushmore Academy patch.
15.Other than being a teenager, Jason actually had a few things in common with Max.
16.Rushmore was also technically Gilmore Girls star Alexis Bledel's first role too.
She was an uncredited extra, appearing as a Grover Cleveland High School student.
17.Though not nominated, Rushmore was included in the 1999 MTV Movie Awards.
18.In The Royal Tenenbaums, the hand you see with a BB lodged in it is actually Andrew Wilson's.
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His brother, Owen, shot him when they were kids.
19.The glasses Anjelica Huston wears in The Royal Tenenbaums belonged to Anderson's mother.
His mom also went on to work in archaeology as a divorcee.
20.The cigarettes Margot smokes in The Royal Tenenbaums are Sweet Aftons, an Irish brand that was discontinued about 10 years ago.
If you're a Peaky Blinders fan, you may have also noticed Thomas Shelby smoking them.
21.Cate Blanchett was really pregnant during The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.
She wore a fake belly in some of her scenes, but in other scenes we see her actual pregnant belly.
22.Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, animated the stop-motion sea creatures in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.
Buena Vista Pictures
23.David Bowie was a fan of the covers Seu Jorge did of his music for The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.
24.The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou was heavily inspired by the life of Jacques Cousteau, one of Anderson's childhood heroes.
You can also see Max reading one of Cousteau's books, Diving for Sunken Treasure, in Rushmore.
25.Natalie Portman went to India to spend 30 minutes shooting what ended up being a 10-second cameo in The Darjeeling Limited.
26.Kara Hayward was a fan of Anderson's prior to starring in Moonrise Kingdom.
She told Rotten Tomatoes her favorite of his movies was The Darjeeling Limited.
27.She did her own hair and makeup to play Suzy.
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28.None of the books Suzy can be seen reading in the movie are real.
Hayward also told Rotten Tomatoes: "The covers were all designed by different artists and they’re very talented; very amazing the way they did that. But no, those were fake books. I wanted to read them."
29.Hayward and Jared Gilman, who played Sam in Moonrise Kingdom, got to keep souvenirs from the set.
He brought home Sam's backpack, and she brought home Suzy's kitten.
30.In Fantastic Mr. Fox, the hair used for the human puppets is actual human hair.
31.The dialogue for Fantastic Mr. Fox was recorded outdoors.
Back in 2009, Anderson told Vanity Fair: "We went to a farm in Connecticut, which was a really fun way to do it... For scenes that were outside, we did them outside, by a river, or in the woods. We went to different places that corresponded with what’s in the scene."
32.The hotel staff in The Grand Budapest Hotel is played mostly by actual local hospitality workers.
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The owner of the Hotel Börse in Görlitz, where much of the filming took place (and where the cast and crew stayed), appeared as an extra working at the front desk.
33.The fur used for the puppets in Isle of Dogs was made from alpaca and merino wool.
34.At an hour and 41 minutes, Isle of Dogs is one of the longest stop-motion films of all time.
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It also took the longest to make — while the rest of Anderson's films came out within 2–3 years of each other, Isle of Dogs wasn't released until a full four years after his previous film.
35.The role of Zeffirelli in The French Dispatch was written specifically for Timothée Chalamet.
Wes Anderson told GQ, "I never had the inconvenience of ever thinking of anybody else for this role even for a second."
36.The French Dispatch is Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan's third film together in less than four years.
They previously starred opposite each other in 2017's Lady Bird and 2019's Little Women.
37.Wes Anderson alums Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, and Jeffrey Wright will all appear in his next film, Asteroid City.
38.Meanwhile, the movie will mark the debuts of Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Scarlett Johansson, Hope Davis, and Matt Dillon in the Wes Anderson Cinematic Universe.
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Correction: An earlier version of this post stated two of Anderson's films have narrators, not three.
