Wes Anderson has dropped the first trailer for his 13th feature, The Phoenician Scheme, and it’s exactly what you think it is. Perhaps just with more plane crashes, freedom fighters, and possibly a nun.
Billed as an “espionage thriller,” the film follows Benicio del Toro as Zsa-zsa Korda, a wildly eccentric businessman with a suspicious survival streak (six plane crashes). His only daughter, Liesel (Mia Threapleton), is a nun. Michael Cera plays the family tutor. Somewhere in the mix: a hairy Benedict Cumberbatch as “Uncle Nubar,” Rupert Friend as a man named Excaliber, and Richard Ayoade as a freedom fighter.
Anderson regulars like Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jeffrey Wright and Bryan Cranston round out the cast. In other words, yes—Anderson’s still on his ensemble game. He’s still packing the frame with as many symmetrical faces as he can fit.
Co-written with longtime collaborator Roman Coppola, the film continues the creative thread that runs through The Darjeeling Limited, Moonrise Kingdom, The French Dispatch and Isle of Dogs. But this time, there’s a Cold War-ish espionage flavour tucked into the pastel palette and deadpan delivery.
Not much is given away in the trailer—just quick cuts of desert landscapes, surveillance gear, and flat dialogue delivered with maximum seriousness. Which is exactly how Anderson likes it. Tonally, it seems to sit somewhere between The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Life Aquatic. But if both those films were filtered through a Cold War spy novel and a surreal family drama.
The film lands in cinemas late May, with Cannes shaping up as a likely premiere spot. Whether you’re here for the aesthetics, the casting bingo card, or just to see what happens when Michael Cera enters the Anderson-verse, The Phoenician Scheme looks like another meticulously bizarre chapter in the Wes Anderson canon.
And yes, the colour palette is still immaculate as per usual.
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