Outside of perhaps Steven Spielberg and Janusz Kamiński, there may be no director-cinematographer collaboration that’s more extensive in modern-day cinema than that of Wes Anderson and Robert Yeoman. Having shot all of his live-action features, along with his recent Oscar-winning The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Yeoman is now taking a break for Anderson’s next feature The Phoenician Scheme.
Stepping in as director of photography, as he did for the Coens when Roger Deakins wasn’t available for Inside Llewyn Davis, is Bruno Delbonnel, who also shot Amélie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Across the Universe, and The Tragedy of Macbeth. However, it won’t be the first time the cinematographer has worked with Wes Anderson, as he shot his H&M holiday ad “Come Together” and even briefly appeared in The French Dispatch.
Co-written by Roman Coppola and Wes Anderson, this new film stars Benicio Del Toro, Michael Cera, Bill Murray, and Mia Threapleton (Kate Winslet’s daughter). Described as “the story of a family and a family business,” the cast and crew recently completed their seventh week of filming in Germany. Delbonnel’s next work will be seen later this year alongside Emmanuel Lubezki for Alfonso Cuarón’s Cate Blanchett-led Apple series Disclaimer.
As for hint why Yeoman may not have joined this time, he told me last year, “[Wes Anderson] a workaholic. I’ll give him that. We jumped right from Asteroid City into the Henry Sugar thing. We were in Spain and then we went to England. He works harder than anybody; he’s just always got something going on. I’m a little more like: take some time off and enjoy my life.”
“Wes really pushes everybody to work outside of the box and find new ways of doing things,” Yeoman said. “I don’t know if it’s human nature, but you kind of lapse into ways that you’ve done before and you know that that’s going to work, but that’s not how we do things with Wes. [Laughs] It’s always that we have to find new ways of doing things with Wes. So like equipment or whatever––we can’t use the tools that we normally would do. We’re always being pushed to find new ways of doing it, so it gets you out of your comfort zone. But I think in the process of doing that you kind of discover something new and it becomes a much more creative way.”
Expect a 2025 premiere for The Phoenician Scheme.