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Wes Anderson

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For the jazz saxophonist, see Wessell Anderson.
Wes Anderson
Anderson in Berlin, 2005
Born
Wesley Wales Anderson

(1969-05-01) May 1, 1969 (age 55)
Houston, Texas, United States
Occupation(s)Director, Screenwriter, Producer, Actor
Years active1994–present

Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) [1][2][3][4] is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials.

He was nominated for a 2001 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums. Anderson has been called an auteur,[5] as he is involved in every aspect of his films' production. His films employ similar aesthetics, using a deliberate, methodical cinematography, with mostly primary colors. His soundtracks feature folk and early rock music, in particular classic British rock. Anderson's films combine dry humor with poignant portrayals of flawed characters – often a mix of the wealthy and the working class. He is also known for working with many of the same actors and crew on varying projects.

Early life

Anderson graduated from St. John's School (Texas) and then from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in Philosophy.[6]

Film career

Anderson's films feature many of the same actors, crew members, and other collaborators. For example, the Wilson brothers (Owen, Luke, and Andrew), Bill Murray,[7] Willem Dafoe, Seymour Cassel, Anjelica Huston, Jason Schwartzman, Kumar Pallana and son Dipak Pallana, Stephen Dignan and Brian Tenenbaum, and Eric Chase Anderson (Anderson's brother). Other frequent collaborators include writer Noah Baumbach (who co-wrote The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr. Fox, with Anderson co-producing his film The Squid and the Whale), Owen Wilson (who co-wrote three of Anderson's feature films), cinematographer Robert Yeoman (A.S.C.), music supervisor Randall Poster, and composer Mark Mothersbaugh.

Anderson has acknowledged that he went to India to film his 2007 film The Darjeeling Limited partly as a tribute to the legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, whose "films have also inspired all my other movies in different ways" (the film is dedicated to him).[8] Jason Schwartzman reunited with Anderson for the The Darjeeling Limited, acting as well as co-writing the script with Anderson and Roman Coppola.[9] In September 2006, following the disappointing commercial and critical reception of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen released a tongue-in-cheek "letter of intervention" of Anderson's artistic "malaise." Proclaiming themselves to be fans of "World Cinema" and Anderson in particular, they offered Anderson their soundtrack services for his The Darjeeling Limited, including lyrics for a title track.[10]

Anderson's stop-motion animation adaptation of the Roald Dahl book Fantastic Mr. Fox was released in 2009. In 2008, Wes Anderson was hired to write the screenplay of the American adaptation of My Best Friend, a French film, for producer Brian Grazer, Anderson's first draft was titled "The Rosenthaler Suite".

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese is an admirer of Anderson's, praising Bottle Rocket and Rushmore in an Esquire magazine article.[11]

Advertising

In September 2007, Wes Anderson oversaw a series of six commercials for AT&T: "College Kid", "Reporter", "Mom", "Architect", "Actor" and "Businessman." The campaign also includes online, print and outdoor advertising. These TV spots are part of AT&T's "Your Seamless World" national campaign from BBDO/New York. Each ad embodies Anderson's distinct style by focusing on a subject and having the environment around them change. Each of the six AT&T commercials introduces us to a different AT&T customer. As each of these people comes before the camera and talks about the different, far-reaching locales where he or she needs cell-phone service, the visuals behind the customer change dramatically to reflect the different destinations. The "Reporter" piece was subject to controversy when several Lebanese-American groups protested its airing as ignorant given the complex and sensitive nature of the Lebanese political situation. The ad portrayed photojournalists dodging bullets on a Beirut rooftop while the city was being bombed. It was subsequently pulled from rotation after the assassination of Antoine Ghanem on September 19, 2007 with AT&T and BBDO issuing public apologies. [12] Anderson starred in and directed an American Express "My Life, My Card" commercial, which chronicled the "filming" of an action movie starring Jason Schwartzman. Anderson acts as if he is being interviewed by someone from American Express for the ad, while walking around completing tasks on set, a scene paying homage to the movie Day for Night by François Truffaut. It was aired on television and in movie theaters in both a short and extended version, during and shortly after the theatrical release of The Life Aquatic.

In 2008, Wes Anderson teamed up with Brad Pitt for a commercial for Japanese cell phones. The commercial takes inspiration from Jacques Tati's Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot. Anderson filmed Pitt in one continuous shot at a French seaside town.

Filmography

Recurring collaborators

Actor Bottle Rocket
(1996)		 Rushmore
(1998)		 The Royal Tenenbaums
(2001)		 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
(2004)		 The Darjeeling Limited
(2007)		 Fantastic Mr. Fox
(2009)		 Moonrise Kingdom
(2012)
Waris Ahluwalia ☒N ☒N
Eric Chase Anderson ☒N ☒N ☒N ☒N ☒N
Noah Baumbach ☒N ☒N
Adrien Brody ☒N ☒N
Seymour Cassel ☒N ☒N ☒N
Brian Cox ☒N ☒N
Stephen Dignan ☒N ☒N ☒N
Willem Dafoe ☒N ☒N
Michael Gambon ☒N ☒N
Anjelica Huston ☒N ☒N ☒N
Bill Murray ☒N ☒N ☒N ☒N ☒N ☒N
Mark Mothersbaugh ☒N ☒N ☒N ☒N
Dipak Pallana ☒N ☒N ☒N
Kumar Pallana ☒N ☒N ☒N ☒N
Jason Schwartzman ☒N ☒N ☒N ☒N
Brian Tenenbaum ☒N ☒N ☒N
Andrew Wilson ☒N ☒N ☒N
Luke Wilson ☒N ☒N ☒N
Owen Wilson ☒N ☒N ☒N ☒N ☒N ☒N ☒N
Wallace Wolodarsky ☒N ☒N ☒N

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wes Anderson.
  1. ^ "Wes Anderson". IMDB. 2010.
  2. ^ "Wes Anderson". Film Reference. 2010.
  3. ^ "Wes Anderson". Yahoo Movies. 2010.
  4. ^ "Wes Anderson returns to form with Mr Fox". Times London. 2009.
  5. ^ "Wes Anderson". The Auteurs. 2009.
  6. ^ "Wes Anderson Biography". IMDb. Retrieved 2010-09-27.
  7. ^ "5 Signs You're Watching a Wes Anderson Movie". OMGList. 2008-03-25. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
  8. ^ "On Ray's Trail". The Statesman. Archived from the original on 2008-01-03. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
  9. ^ "Wilson & Anderson reminisce over a cup of Darjeeling". Production Weekly. 2006. Retrieved 2007-08-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) [dead link]
  10. ^ Becker, Walter (2006). "Attention Wes Anderson". Steely Dan. Retrieved 2007-08-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  11. ^ Scorsese, Martin (2000). "Wes Anderson". Esquire. Retrieved 2011-07-31. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  12. ^ Daily Star September 21, 1997)
  13. ^ IMDb


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