It looks like Wes Anderson is going back to a familiar home. After teaming with Focus Features for last year’s “Moonrise Kingdom,” the filmmaker’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel” has been snatched up by Fox Searchlight who released “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “The Darjeeling Limited.” But that’s the boring stuff, the good news? We now have a plot.
Until now, the only thing we’ve really known about the movie is the absolutely ridiculous cast which includes: Ralph Fiennes, Edward Norton, Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Harvey Keitel, Jason Schwartzman, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Saoirse Ronan, Mathieu Amalric, F Murray Abraham and Bob Balaban. New to the cast, or at least previously unreported are Tom Wilkinson (“Michael Clayton“) and Tony Revolori, a relative unknown who plays a key young boy character in the movie. The plot itself has been under lock and key, but Screen Daily have dropped a pretty nice little logline about the film. So here you go:
The Grand Budapest Hotel tells of a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars and his friendship with a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting, the battle for an enormous family fortune and the slow and then sudden upheavals that transformed Europe during the first half of the 20th century.
So, a quirkier, period version of “Trance“? Okay, we’re joking around obviously, but it sounds like a caper tailor-made for Anderson. Previously, Anderson had revealed that the movie was inspired by the films of Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder citing “To Be or Not to Be” and “Shop Around the Corner” (which takes place in Budapest, fyi) in particular, while also naming Rouben Mamoulian‘s “Love Me Tonight” with Maurice Chevalier.” Law also recently let it slip that the movie takes place during two time periods — the ’30s and ’60s — which could be used to represent the “upheavals” and transformation suggested in the synopsis.
Putting other pieces together: it looks like Fiennes has the lead role with the young Revolori co-starring. Meanwhile, we know that Ronan will be using her Irish accent for the movie and that Goldblum has said his character is a cross between Sigmund Freud and Jack Benny. As for everyone else, we’ll have to wait and see…but hopefully not too long. Fox Searchlight is apparently looking at a possible late 2013 release, which means that earlier reports that it will hit in 2014 aren’t quite set in stone. If they think it has a shot at the Oscars, you can bet it will get some kind of limited bow before December is out.
