âWhich actors would you like for your film, Mr. Anderson?â

â...Yes.â

If youâre a fan of Wes Andersonâs work, particularly with Searchlight Pictures, you have seen some of the most delightful stuff to ever be captured on film. Generous, sweeping pastel palettes, acting choreographed with razor-sharp finesse, and of course, the glorious, glorious symmetry thatâs become synonymous with the filmmaker.

© Searchlight Pictures

Thereâs plenty of reasons to be excited for the upcoming film, The French Dispatch - but before we get into excited adulations surrounding what might just be the most âWes Andersonâ film by Wes Anderson, take a look at the trailer, which just dropped this Thursday.

The trailer opens with Bill Murray as Arthur Howitzer Jr., editor of the French Dispatch - described in the trailer as âa factual weekly report on the world of politics, the arts â high and low â and diverse stories of human interest.â 

Anderson happens to be a collector and fan of The New Yorker magazine - and the journalists depicted in the film as well as the stories they follow seem to be loosely inspired by the unique, thrilling and often bizarre tales youâd find during the publicationâs heyday in the 1950s. It also seems that the film jumps back and forth in time a la The Grand Budapest Hotel - playing around with colour, black-and-white and in a delightful nod to classic cinema, old-school aspect ratios.

It appears that the central plot of this film weaves itself around three particular stories, hunted down by the Dispatchâs legendary journalists.

© Searchlight Pictures

âThe Concrete Masterpieceâ is the subject of the first story - reported by J.K.L. Berensen (Tilda Swinton). The masterpiece itself is an enigmatic painting produced by an apparently psychopathic, imprisoned artist - Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio Del Toro), whose muse Simone (Lea Seydoux) also happens to be his jailer. Things take a turn for the intense as art dealer Julien Cadazio (Adrein Brody) shows up with one thing on his mind - to get Rosenthaler to part with his beloved painting, no matter the cost.

© Searchlight Pictures

If youâve ever watched Bernardo Bertelucciâs The Dreamers, youâll like this one. Deeply influenced by the 1968 student riots in Paris, âRevisions To A Manifestoâ is written by Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand), and follows the story of two young French revolutionaries - Zeffirelli (Timothee Chalamet) and Juliette (Kyna Khoudri). While this little vignette seems to have the least footage in the trailer, we do get a rather funny, mysterious glimpse of Zeffirelli interrupted during a shower by Krementz, who seems to be... crying?

© Searchlight Pictures

Again - if you dig Wes Anderson, it would come as no surprise that heâd sneak in food critic Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright) into the Dispatchâs battalion of front-line reporters. The filmmaker has always enjoyed creating marvelous setpieces revolving around food, and this one takes the cake - no pun intended. âThe Private Dining Roomâ revolves around a master chefâs (Steve Park) unique dining experiences, and one particular dinner where a guest (Mathieu Amalric) receives a chilling phone call, informing him that his son has been kidnapped. Itâs speculated that actors Williem DaFoe, Liev Schrieber, Ed Norton and Saiorse Ronan also have a part to play in this delectable tale.

Owen Wilson and Christoph Waltz are also casted - along with a bevy of exceptional French talent. While the film is slated for a July 24th release, itâs to be expected that the film will have a special screening at this yearâs Cannes Film Festival, which will be held a bit earlier this May.

If only we had a few tickets to France...

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