Latest news with #FocusFeatures
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Wes Anderson Devised ‘The Phoenician Scheme' – Crew Call Podcast At Cannes
Oscar winner Wes Anderson returns to Deadline's Crew Call to shed some light on his writing process and how he came up with The Phoenician Scheme, a project he first started breaking around the time of his second Cannes premiere, 2021's The French Dispatch. He was looking for an Anthony Quinn type to play the notorious, yet lovable European magnet, Zsa-zsa Korda, and knew the star of French Dispatch, Oscar winner Benicio del Toro, was the guy. Anderson proceeded to send him pages. More from Deadline David Mamet On Return To Cinema With Self-Distributed 'Henry Johnson', State Of The Industry & J.K. Rowling-Inspired Play He's Writing For Rebecca Pidgeon - Crew Call Podcast Wes Anderson Teases Next Project With Richard Ayoade & Roman Coppola - Cannes 'The Phoenician Scheme' Director Wes Anderson Questions Trump Tariffs: "Does That Mean You Can Hold Up The Movie In Customs?" At a time when many want more films to be shot in the U.S., sometimes, given the Euro nature of Anderson's films, that's not possible. He almost shot Asteroid City in Texas, however, the locale didn't prove to be convenient for the crew; the filmmaker always is looking for a location which can also accommodate his crew. The last movie he shot stateside was his first Cannes premiere, 2012's Moonrise Kingdom, which was lensed in Rhode Island. Phoenician Scheme reps a return to form for Anderson when it comes to the absurdist family comedies, this one loosely inspired by his father-in-law. In the movie, Korda, who is under constant assassination watch, reigns in his estranged daughter, wannabee nun Leisl (Mia Threapleton). He needs an heir and unloads to her a slew of shoeboxes with pieces of his remaining business plans. Anderson discloses here that his wife went through a similar situation; her father looping her in on his master shoebox plan before his death. Anderson's third movie with Focus Features after Moonrise Kingdom and Asteroid City, hits limited NYC and L.A. theaters on May 30 with a wide break on June 6. The pic at 76% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes looks to emulate the specialty box office success of 2023's Asteroid City which grossed north of $28M stateside. Listen to our conversation below: Best of Deadline Every 'The Voice' Winner Since Season 1, Including 9 Team Blake Champions Everything We Know About 'Jurassic World: Rebirth' So Far 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out?
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Wes Anderson's ‘The Phoenician Scheme' Tees Up Strong Indie Weekend With Angelika Film Center Takeover
Focus Features has done a full takeover of the Angelika Film Center with on all six screens for filmmaker Wes Anderson's latest. There's a lobby and café redesign for full immersion, a jazz band, custom cocktails, t-shirts and totes as the film, which clocked a lengthy standing ovation at its recent Cannes world premiere (see Deadline review) bows theatrically in limited release at six locations including NYC's Alamo Brooklyn and AMC Lincoln Square and AMC's The Grove, Century City and Burbank in LA. Around this time in 2023, Anderson's Asteroid City, also from Focus, delivered a massive jolt to the arthouse and specialty world with a $790k three-day weekend, also at six theaters, including a takeover of the Landmark LA. That opening per-theater average of $132k was the biggest in years for a helmer known to energize the specialty box office. His Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014 opened at $800k on four screens for a PSA of $200k — still considered the one to top in absolute. More from Deadline 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life', 'The Last Rodeo', 'Friendship' Counterprogram 'Lilo & Stitch' & 'Mission: Impossible' Holiday Weekend - Specialty Preview How Wes Anderson Devised 'The Phoenician Scheme' - Crew Call Podcast At Cannes Wes Anderson Teases Next Project With Richard Ayoade & Roman Coppola - Cannes The Angelika's immersive experience features a Marseille Bob's themed bar with customized menu items including a signature champagne cocktail and photos taken by a film-inspired Egyptian elevator and vintage train. The theater is offering a premium ticket for $60 with a t-shirt, large popcorn and drink (including cocktail) combo and King Size Hershey's Bar. A standard experience ticket is $30. Q&As Friday with Anderson and cast members Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton and Michael Cera at the 4:40 pm and 5:40 pm shows. Del Toro stars as wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda, who names his only daughter (Threapleton), a nun, as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists, and determined assassins. Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch, Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Darjeeling Express, Isle Of Dogs, Rushmore and more) will be introducing shows at 7 pm. and 7:20 pm. The director's large and devoted following is welcome as independent films have generally struggled post Covid and the 2025 indie box office only recently perked up from a long post-holiday lull. It's been feeling some love in recent weeks from a lively Cannes and an overall crush in ticket buying at the North American box office. 'Wes means a huge amount to me personally as an artist, and I feel like I'm probably not the only one in the room who would say something like that, and just getting to be even a small part of any of his movies truly means the world to me,' said Focus Features chairman Peter Kujawski at screening of The Phoenician Scheme at Jazz At Lincoln Center this week. 'I can speak for all of us at Focus when I say it is just such a joy, such a pleasure, such a point of pride to be part of this ride with Wes and the entire team.' New openings: IFC debuts period action-drama written and directed by John Maclean in moderate release on 412 screens. Set in the rugged landscape of 1790s Britain, the film follows Tornado (Kōki,) who finds herself caught in a perilous situation when she and her father's traveling puppet show crosses paths with a ruthless criminal gang led by Sugarman (Tim Roth) and his ambitious son Little Sugar (Jack Lowden). In an attempt to create a new life, Tornado seizes the opportunity to steal the gold from the gang's most recent heist. World premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival in February. Music Box Films presents , Jonathan Millet's debut feature that opened Cannes in 2024 (Deadline review here). Inspired by true events, the drama-thriller follows Hamid, a former literature professor from Syria, (rising French-Tunisian star Adam Bessa, César-nominated for his performance), living in France two years after being released from one of Bashar El-Assad's's jails. Haunted by the traumatic memories of his imprisonment, Hamid tirelessly searches for the man who tortured him, helped by members of a secret cell of other exiled Syrians hunting down war criminals. The film excavates the moral dilemmas migrants confront as they struggle to rebuild their lives and take control of their destinies. Written by Millet and Florence Rochat, also stars Tawfeek Barhom, Julia Franz Richter and Hala Rajab. Abramorama opens Jack Sumner's documentary at the Quad in NYC. In a career spanning sixty years, concert promoter and impresario Ron Delsener was the name behind virtually every major contemporary music concert in New York City for generations — from promoting the Beatles at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, to bringing David Bowie to Carnegie Hall and Patti Smith to the Palladium, to somehow convincing Simon and Garfunkel to bury the hatchet and play the biggest concert of all time in Central Park. Features Jon Bon Jovi, Jimmy Buffett, Cher, Art Garfunkel, Billy Joel, Lorne Michaels, Bette Midler, Gene Simmons, Paul Simon, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Stanley and Steven Van Zandt. Live events: Trafalgar presents j-hope tour , a live broadcast of the BTS star's concert from Osaka to 2,700+ cinemas including 631 across North America. Select encores on Sunday. Fathom is on about 800 screens in North America with and Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). Encores on Sunday. Noting A24's Friendship, which has had a great run, is on 1,280 screens in week 4 (the distributor is opening horror wide on 2,400 screens), and Sony Pictures Classics Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, which had a strong debut last week, jumps to 526 screens from 60. MORE Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds 'Poker Face' Season 2 Guest Stars: From Katie Holmes To Simon Hellberg 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘The Phoenician Scheme' Lands Top Limited Opening Of 2025
Wes Anderson's is now the top-grossing limited opening of the year with an estimated $570,000 this weekend at just six locations in New York and Los Angeles for a per-theater average of $95K. The Focus Features' film expands to 1,500 screens next weekend. The film unseats A24's Friendship, which kicked the indie box into high gear a few weeks ago with a great $445K limited opening and $75K per-theater opening for Andrew DeYoung's feature debut starring comedian Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd. More from Deadline 'The Phoenician Scheme' Review: Benicio Del Toro Hilariously Dominates Wes Anderson's Latest All-Star Wes Anderson Movie – Cannes Film Festival 'The Phoenician Scheme' Cannes Red Carpet Photos: Wes Anderson, Mia Threapleton, Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray, Michael Cera, & More Wes Anderson's 'The Phoenician Scheme' Tees Up Strong Indie Weekend With Angelika Film Center Takeover - Specialty Preview The Phoenician Scheme, written by Anderson and Roman Coppola, stars Benicio del Toro as a family patriarch and business titan beset by rivals and assassins, and Mia Threapleton as his daughter, a nun, whom he wants to inherit it all. Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Richard Ayoade, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, and Benedict Cumberbatch also star in the pic, which is coming off its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this month. The Phoenician Scheme is the third major collaboration of Focus, Anderson and Indian Paintbrush, who also partnered on Anderson's most recent feature Asteroid City (2023) as well Moonrise Kingdom (2012). It was produced by Anderson for his American Empirical Pictures banner alongside longtime collaborators Steven Rales of Indian Paintbrush, Jeremy Dawson and John Peet. The movie was filmed in Germany in association with Studio Babelsberg. Asteroid City's PTA of $132K was the biggest in years, and The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014 a record-setter at $200K. The latter ended up scoring nine Oscar nominations including Best Picture and winning four. Focus took over the Angelika Film Center in New York this weekend with Phoenician Scheme on all six screens, a jazz band and movie-themed merchandise and activations in the lobby and concessions – reflected in higher ticket prices — $30 for standard and $60 for premium. NYC's Alamo Brooklyn and AMC Lincoln Square and AMC's The Grove, Century City and Burbank in Los Angeles are other opening theaters. Other new openings: IFC Films debuted UK period thiller to $130K at 412 theaters, and Music Box Fims opened Jonathan Millet's feature debut from Cannes 2024 with French-Tunisian star Adam Bessa at four locations to $5,600. Holdover: Sony Pictures Classics clocked $561K on 526 screens in week 2 (up from 61 last week) for a cume of $977.500. Event cinema had a terrific weekend with the final Met: transmission of the 2024–2025 season, Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, grossing $906K at about 800 cinemas in North America. Fathom distributes in most markets. Trafalgar had a doubleheader, with Saturday's live worldwide broadcast of j-hope tour — the BTS solo star's concert from Osaka — grossing $789K at 631 screens in North America. The UK-based distributor's collaboration with Hasbro was also out with globally including 428 venues in North America that grossed $420K for Friday and Saturday. MORE Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds 'Poker Face' Season 2 Guest Stars: From Katie Holmes To Simon Hellberg 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More
New York Times
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
These Fans Love ‘Pride & Prejudice' a Billion Times Over
'Ladies and gentlemen,' a voice announced over speakers, 'please welcome world-renowned pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet!' A roar erupted from hundreds of people dressed in their Regency-inspired finest: tailcoats and dresses with puffed shoulders, costume jewelry and ringlet-curled hair. They crowded around a small Steinway piano to the side of a makeshift stage, whose backdrop was like a billboard: a purple expanse with the image of Keira Knightley in a bonnet and the text 'Pride & Prejudice: Twentieth Anniversary.' It was a Comic Con for the Jane Austen set, an enormous party thrown by Focus Features for one of its most beloved films, Joe Wright's 2005 adaptation of 'Pride and Prejudice.' Inside the Viennese Ballroom at the Langham Huntington in Pasadena, Calif., fans of the movie recently gathered for the rare opportunity to hear Thibaudet perform Dario Marianelli's soundtrack. Thibaudet, dressed in custom Vivienne Westwood designed for the occasion, took his seat at the piano and began to play 'Dawn,' the tone-setting theme from the start of the film, in which a freely repeating note gives way to an instantly endearing melody over gentle waves of arpeggios. A hush swept through the room, and people held up their phones to record. Two friends held each other and cried; one took a video as the other wiped away her tears. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Gulf Today
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Cera and Anderson were destined to make a movie together
When Michael Cera was announced as joining the cast of a Wes Anderson movie for the first time, the prevailing response was: Hadn't he already been in a Wes Anderson movie? So seemingly aligned in sensibility and style are Cera and Anderson that you could easily imagine a whole fake filmography. It is, for a slightly more corduroyed corner of the movie world, an actor-director pairing as destined as Scorsese and De Niro — even if 'The Phoenician Scheme' is (checks notes one last time) their first movie together. 'I would remember,' Cera deadpans. 'I would never have passed up the opportunity.' 'The Phoenician Scheme,' which Focus Features releases on Friday in theatres, stars Benicio del Toro as the international tycoon Zsa-zsa Korda, who after a lifetime of swindling and exploiting has decided to make his daughter, a novitiate named Liesl (Mia Threapleton), the heir to his estate. Cera plays Liesl's Norwegian tutor Bjørn Lund. And because of the strong leading performances, you couldn't quite say Cera steals the show, he's certainly one of the very best things about 'The Phoenician Scheme' — and that's something for a movie that includes Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston playing a game of HORSE. Bjørn is an entomologist, which means Cera spends a sizable portion of the movie in a bow tie with an insect gently poised on his finger. 'He is sort of a bug, himself,' Cera, speaking in an interview at the Cannes Film Festival shortly before the premiere of 'The Phoenician Scheme,' says with a wry smile. 'And he sheds his skin and becomes his truth self.' If Cera's role in 'The Phoenician Scheme' feels like a long time coming, it is. He and Anderson first met more than 15 years ago. Cera, 36, was then coming off his early breakthroughs in 'Arrested Development,' 'Superbad' and 'Juno.' A comic wunderkind from Ontario who stood out even among the 'Arrested Development' cast as a teenager, Cera had caught Anderson's attention. 'It was something arranged by an agent in New York and we went to a kind of cocktail party,' Anderson recalls by phone. 'We were with Harvey Keitel, too. So it was me and Harvey and Michael Cera - a totally unexpected combination. But I loved him. For years I've kind of felt like: Why haven't we already done something together?' For Cera, the meeting was even more memorable. 'I remember being very excited to meet him,' Cera says. 'I remember him being very disarming. Obviously, he was like a luminary inspiration. He has had a huge impact on my general sense of taste. I discovered his movies when I was a teenager and watched them over and over.' They nearly did come together on a movie before 'The Phoenician Scheme.' Anderson had a small role for Cera in 'Asteroid City,' but when its production schedule got pushed, Cera had to drop out because of the coming due date for his first son with his wife Nadine. 'I was kind of worried that I blew it,' says Cera, 'that I missed the chance to sneak in.' But even though Anderson and Cera didn't work together until 'The Phoenician Scheme,' they developed a relationship. Cera, who aspires to write and direct his own films, would send Anderson scripts for feedback. 'We became friends,' says Cera. 'In the case of this movie, it was everything short of written for him,' Anderson says. 'As soon as we had the idea of the character, he was the guy who (cowriter Roman Coppola) and I started talking about. I think we talked to him about it before there was a script or anything.' 'It seemed like it had already happened,' adds Anderson. 'And it was a very good fit, a natural thing.' Cera quickly adapted to Anderson's unique style of moviemaking, in which the cast collectively stay at a hotel, begin the morning in makeup together and remain on set without trailers to retreat to. 'At first, you're kind of exhausted,' says Cera. 'At the end of the first day, you go: OK, I need to eat a bigger breakfast.' As the production went along, Cera often sat right next to Anderson to watch him work. Associated Press
