Exclusive: Filmmaker Wes Anderson has directed eight feature films so far and his latest, the upcoming caper comedy cum melancholic 1930s period film set in a fictionalized Eastern Europe, “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” hits theaters in limited release (NY/LA) this weekend. The movie is one of his most delightful and “Wes-Anderson”-y: it’s intricate, stylized, exquisitely crafted and detailed. And yet, apart from being funny (and hilariously vulgar at times), the dolorous bent the movie possesses as an age of fascism overtakes a refined era of elegance is deeply moving, thought-provoking and strangely feels very personal (read our review here).
There was a bit of a gap after Anderson’s troubled production on “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou” (shooting at sea is never easy), but now Anderson seems to be moving at a quicker clip, releasing a movie every two years and writing a script as soon as his last film is complete (in fact, that pace is traveling even faster; “The Grand Budapest Hotel” was finished last fall and was held for the Berlin Film Festival this year, making the gap between “Moonrise Kingdom” and this film’s completion only a year and half).
The Playlist recently sat down with Anderson to talk “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” and the director revealed he’s already on to his next film. So ambitious it sounds, it may not even be a movie. And he’s co-writing it, or least elements of it, with his ‘Darjeeling Limited‘ and “Moonrise Kingdom” co-writer Roman Coppola.
“I do have some ideas for the next thing I want to make which is very complicated. I’m not even sure if it even is a movie. But hopefully it is,” he said coyly. “Roman Coppola and I are working on aspects of it together. “
Trying to unlock some elements of the project, and sort of gauging on where Anderson was heading with it, our interviewer asked if the movie could have theatrical elements to it, or if not a movie, could be rendered on the stage. “Well, it could have that,” he admitted. “But in a way it’s a little bit vaguely avant-garde in its concept and I’m just not sure if it’s going to quite gel.”
“I’m trying to think of a good tease,” he added with a smile, noting that he didn’t want to reveal too much about it yet. “I think the thing is well, it’s a thing where maybe there’s ‘many things happening at once.’ That could be my tease.”
Pretty vague indeed, but like “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” it sounds ambitious and intriguing, whatever it is. And the news of Anderson already working on another screenplay—or story concept if it indeed does not turn out to be a film—is always a good sign. “The Grand Budapest Hotel” opens in limited release this weekend and expands wider on March 14th. You can find out where and when to see the movie in wide release here. More from this interview this week. – Interview reporting by Rodrigo Perez
