The Phoenician Scheme stars reveal wildly elaborate filming trick behind iconic Wes Anderson movies

News.com.au

28-05-2025

The all-star cast of Wes Anderson's latest blockbuster has lifted the lid on the unique tool
behind the filmmaker's quirkiest scenes, describing it as a gamechanger.
Anderson's latest outing, The Phoenician Scheme, had its global premiere at Cannes Film
Festival last week, which saw its lead actors Benicio Del Toro, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Richard Ayoade and Mia Threapleton hit the red carpet.
The film features del Toro as Zsa-zsa Korda, a wealthy and controversial businessman who –
while facing his own mortality – names his estranged daughter, Leisl (Threapleton), as sole
heir to his empire, and enlists her help in pulling off one final, ambitious project: The
Phoenician Scheme.
As they attempt to nail down the logistics, the unlikely duo is targeted by scheming tycoons,
foreign terrorists, and seemingly endless would-be assassins.
Speaking to news.com.au ahead of the premiere in Cannes, Threapleton, 24, described how
Anderson drew upon his previous work in animation to bring this film to life.
'He makes an animated version of the film, it's a series of storyboards, it's amazing,' she
explained, adding that it was a 'full-blown feature-length animation' of the entire film 'shot
by shot, frame by frame', including the voices of all the characters.
'I've never actually seen anything like that … to be presented with this, it was great. We had a blueprint of what we were doing, we knew what the shots were going to be and we knew the pacing of what we were doing.
'It was so useful and so valuable, just fantastic.'
Threapleton's co-star, Richard Ayoade, plays a terrorist in The Phoenician Scheme – which
marks his third time working with Anderson, whom he describes as 'the greatest director on
Earth'.
The impressive title, the British actor and comedian told news.com.au, is borne of the fact
that he's a 'complete filmmaker'.
'He produces, he writes, he directs. Every single thing in one of his frames is there by design
and adds to the overall narrative. He's one of the best,' Ayoade said.
As with basically all of Anderson's films, The Phoenician Scheme attracts some of Hollywood's biggest names into relatively minor roles – Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray and Benedict Cumberbatch, to name just a few.
Whoever happened to be working together at the same time got together for dinners 'every
night', and created a 'Lunch Club' to catch up on set during the day.
'It was so much fun,' Threapleton, who is the daughter of actress Kate Winslet, gushed.
Ahmed added: 'Wes has these dinners every night … and so you do have this collegiate
atmosphere, summer camp [vibes]. Summer camp with Tom Hanks.'
Cera and del Toro also credited Anderson's trademark A-list cameo rotation with keeping the
core cast focused and energised.
'Everybody came in different moments as we were filming their little chapter of the movie. It
was like a new movie every week,' Cera told news.com.au, while del Toro agreed: 'It's a
shock of energy. It's just exciting and it's always different.'