Few directors have as unique of a style as Wes Anderson. The critically-acclaimed filmmaker has established a definitive style over the course of the 21st century which can best be defined as a throwback formalism layered with absurdist humor. Anderson’s distinct tone and color palette has been utilized for original stories exclusively, barring 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, and is back on full display in his latest picture, Asteroid City. This has led to film fans attempting to replicate Anderson’s style on social media to reimagine some of Hollywood’s most famous movies including X-Men and Star Wars.
Speaking to ComicBook.com, the Asteroid City cast theorized what projects from their pasts they would most like to see get a Wes Anderson makeover.
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“He would’ve done a very different version of Marriage Story,” Scarlett Johansson said, referencing her Best Picture-nominated film from 2019. “Although he’s worked with (Marriage Story director) Noah [Baumbach] obviously before, so maybe that could have been an interesting thing for him to have interpreted.”
As Johansson alludes to, Anderson and Marriage Story director Noah Baumbach have come together on projects in the past, notably co-writingย The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr. Fox.
“It’s a weird thing because in a way, I just wanted to do the ones he made,” Anderson’s most frequent collaborator Jason Schwartzman said. “Gosh, I can’t imagine.”
“Cadillac Records. Want to go back?” Jeffrey Wright asked Asteroid City co-star Adrien Brody.
“That’d be amazing. We did Cadillac Records together,” Brody replied. That would be kind of great. We should pitch it.”
Cadillac Recordsย (2008) was a biopic that chronicled the life of record-company executive Leonard Chess, played by Brody, from the 1940s until the late 1960s. Wright starred alongside Brody in that film as Muddy Waters.
“He could take a crack at American Splendor,” Hope Davis added, pointing to the author Harvey Pekar’s biopic from 2003 which fuses live-action with both documentary and animation. “That would be a cool one to have Wes put his vision on. I mean, his vision is so unique and the stories that he creates are so unique. It’s hard to imagine. I think really only I think American Splendor that he could do that one.
“I’d be curious to see if he could do Fargo,” Stephen Park mentioned. “That would be really cool. Or Do The Right Thing. Wes Anderson Do The Right Thing, that would be great.”
Fargo (1996) is a Coen Brothers black comedy crime film that deals with a fabricated kidnapping and ransom. It went on to win Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards. Do The Right Thingย comes from the mind of Spike Lee and spotlights a Brooklyn neighborhood’s brewing tension between its African-American and Italian-American residents.
Asteroid City is playing in theaters now.
