We’re now in the year of two new features from Wes Anderson. Before his Roald Dahl adaptation of The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, Rupert Friend, and Richard Ayoade, lands on Netflix this fall, we’ll see Asteroid City. Set for a June release from Focus Features and tipped to premiere at Cannes Film Festival, we now have a new look behind the scenes of the production.
Written and directed by Anderson, based on a story by Anderson and Roman Coppola, the film stars––[takes a deep breath]––Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Ed Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, Grace Edwards, Aristou Meehan, Sophia Lillis, Ethan Lee, Jeff Goldblum, and Rita Wilson.
Marking a reunion between Anderson and Focus Features for the first time since a decade ago with Moonrise Kingdom, his newest film takes place in a fictional American desert town circa 1955. In the film, the itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention (organized to bring together students and parents from across the country for fellowship and scholarly competition) is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.
Courtesy of the set decorator, a collection of photos has been unveiled showing off the Spanish set. We also have a few new plot details, thanks to a Target posting of a tie-in book: “Thousands of years ago an asteroid fell from the sky, creating a huge crater, in the center of which a piece of asteroid rock remains. Once a year, a convention is held on the site, attracting astronomers, teachers, familes with would-be teenage astronomers––as well as military personnel. As the stars begin to align, events occur which are startling, and completely unexpected. This is Anderson at his comic best; it is also suffused with the grief caused by the death of the mother of one of the families – giving the film a profound emotional impact.”
Update: Photos removed at the request of Focus Features.
Asteroid City arrives in theaters on June 16 with a wider expansion set for June 23.