Wes Anderson’s ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ Lands Global Distribution With Focus Features, Sets May Release

Anthony D'Alessandro

11 February 2025 at 11:00 am·2-min read

Focus Features is reteaming for a third time with Wes Anderson and producer Indian Paintbrush on their next movie The Phoenician Scheme in what is a global distribution rights deal.

A stateside limited release of May 30 has been set with a wide expansion on June 6.

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Gosh, I smell Cannes premiere, don’t you? Anderson loves launching his movies at Cannes, 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. Focus also distributed Anderson’s 2012 movie, Moonrise Kingdom, and between that and Asteroid City, the city grossed a combined $122M worldwide.

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.

The Phoenician Scheme tells the story of a family and a family business. Pic stars Benicio del Toro as Zsa-zsa Korda, one of the richest men in Europe; Mia Threapleton as Sister Liesl, his daughter/a nun; Michael Cera as Bjorn Lund, their tutor. With: Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Richard Ayoade, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Pic was produced by Anderson for his American Empirical Pictures banner alongside longtime collaborators Steven Rales of Indian Paintbrush, Jeremy Dawson, and John Peet. The movie was filmed in Germany in association with Studio Babelsberg.

Asteroid City received a near seven-minute standing ovation at its worldwide premiere at Cannes 2023. The movie opened in six New York City and LA theaters on June 16, 2023 notching the best opening theater average post Covid with $142,2K or 3-day opening of $853K.

Anderson won an Oscar last year for his live-action Netflix short The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.

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