Yahoo Lifestyle ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ New Footage Is A Wes Anderson Romp With Benicio Del Toro At The Head Of The Table – CinemaCon
Focus Features took CinemaCon attendees inside the mind of Wes Anderson on Wednesday afternoon, showing off footage of his upcoming The Phoenician Scheme. This marks the filmmaker’s third major collaboration with Focus and tells the story of a family and a family business.
As per norm, Anderson’s film is packed with talent, the roster this time including Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend and Hope Davis.
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Del Toro is Zsa-zsa Korda, one of the richest men in Europe; Threapleton is Sister Liesl, his daughter, a nun; Cera is Bjorn Lund, the tutor.
The exclusive CinemaCon trailer shown in the room is goofy, stylized, fast-paced good fun in full Wes Anderson style. Korda names his daughter, one of his six children, as heir, not disclosing why but notifying all that he’s embarking on “the most important project of my lifetime.” There are scenes in the desert, in the luxurious family villa with brisk dialogue, funny facial hair, gunshots and an outed assassin who pops a suicide pill as Liesl says last rites.
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Anderson directed The Phoenician Scheme off a screenplay he co-wrote with his longtime collaborator Roman Coppola. Anderson and Coppola also co-wrote Asteroid City and Moonrise Kingdom together.
A limited U.S. theatrical release is set for May 30 with expansion on June 6. As we’ve previously noted, that sure sounds like prime positioning for Cannes. Anderson loves launching his movies on the Riviera, recent titles being Asteroid City, which was a nice box office hit for Focus, as well as Searchlight’s The French Dispatch to name a few. Universal Pictures has international distribution on The Phoenician Scheme.
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