Wes Anderson's 'The French Dispatch' Heads To Fox Searchlight, And Of Course It Has An Amazing Cast
Even though 20th Century Fox isn't exactly doing The Walt Disney Company any favors with their box office performance this year, Fox Searchlight is still operating like it's business as usual. The more indie-focused and award-driven arm of Fox has just secured the worldwide distribution rights to Wes Anderson's next film, The French Dispatch. This comes after Fox Searchlight released Isle of Dogs, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Darjeeling Limited. Learn more below.
Fox Searchlight sent out a press release announcing the acquisition of The French Dispatch, which will have Wes Anderson writing, directing and producing, as well as Steven Rales and Jeremy Dawson also returning as producers. The deal also reteams Fox Searchlight with Indian Paintbrush, who is co-financing the movie.
The movie is officially described with this brief description:
"The French Disatch is a love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th-century French city and brings to life a collection of stories published in "The French Dispatch" magazine."
The press release also lists the official cast, which includes Benicio Del Toro, Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright, Adrien Brody, Timothée Chalamet, Léa Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, Mathieu Amalric, Lyna Khoudri, Stephen Park, Owen Wilson and Bill Murray. That's an impressive assembly of talent, but it appears to be missing some names that were reported to be involved previously.
In preceding reports, Saoirse Ronan, Willem Dafoe, Henry Winkler, Kate Winslet, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban and Christoph Waltz were all mentioned as being part of The French Dispatch, but they're not listed in the press release. Could those deals have fallen through, or do they merely have much smaller roles than the rest of the cast? After all, almost all of them have worked with Wes Anderson before, so it would make sense if they were just popping up for a quick appearance, especially with three different storylines possibly involved.
No matter who ends up actually being in the movie, we know the ensemble will be outstanding, as they always are in Wes Anderson's movies. And Steve Gilula and Nancy Utley, Chairmen of Fox Searchlight Pictures couldn't be more thrilled to work with Wes Anderson again. They said:
"We are excited to dive back into the unmistakable and entirely original world of Wes Anderson. Our collaborations with Wes in the past have been exceptional, and we're thrilled to be back working with him and the Indian Paintbrush team on The French Dispatch."
The French Dispatch doesn't have a release date yet, but we're betting it arrives late in 2020.