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Geek Feed
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Feed
Robert Eggers to Direct A Christmas Carol Movie with Willem Dafoe as Scrooge
It looks like director Robert Eggers isn't done with Christmas horror movies. After the success of Nosferatu, Eggers is set to work on another snow-covered Christmas story with an adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. According to Deadline, Eggers is developing the movie with Warner Bros., and he has longtime collaborator Willem Dafoe in mind for the part of Ebenezer Scrooge. While A Christmas Carol is known as a kid-friendly tale, thanks in part to the popularity of the Muppet version, it can be considered a holiday horror story, what with Scrooge being haunted by several ghosts—one of which is the grotesque corpse of his old partner Jacob Marley. Carol is just one of many incoming projects under Eggers' belt. He also has a Werwulf movie with Focus Features, and it wasn't too long before it was announced that he was working on a follow-up of Jim Henson's cult classic Labyrinth. Admittedly, Nosferatu wasn't my favorite Eggers film, but the movie was a success when it came out, and a lot of fans loved his new twist on the classic Dracula tale. Personally, Lily-Rose Depp was the big standout in the film for me. She just embodied that possessed maiden so well. I may have wanted more out of Bill Skarsgard as Nosferatu, but he definitely had the aura for it. Who knows, maybe Carol is going to be Eggers' prep for the Labyrinth film. It would be fantastic if he found a way to put Muppets in it. No release date has been announced for Eggers' A Christmas Carol , but maybe it would be ready by Christmas 2026.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Robert Eggers Writing And Directing ‘A Christmas Carol' For Warner Bros; Willem Dafoe Top Choice To Star
EXCLUSIVE: After hitting a home run during the holidays with his new take on the Dracula story Nosferatu, Robert Eggers looks to be staying in the Christmas spirit for a new project he has set his sights on. Sources tell Deadline that Warner Bros is in development with Eggers who will write and direct a retelling of the classic Charles Dickens Christmas ghost story A Christmas Carol. Insiders add that while negotiations are not underway with talent, Eggers is writing the role of Ebenezer Scrooge for his longtime collaborator Willem Dafoe. Chris Columbus and Elenor Columbus are attached to produce via Maiden Voyage. Eggers will also produce. More from Deadline Robert Eggers Reteaming With Focus Features For 'Werwulf', Sets Christmas 2026 Release Robert Eggers Set For 'Labyrinth' Sequel At TriStar 'Dexter's Laboratory' & 'The Powerpuff Girls' Creators On How They Broke The System At Cartoon Network A Christmas Carol has seen its fair share of retellings over the years with its tale of an elderly miser visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. The classic Dickens tale seems to be right in Eggers' wheelhouse, not only because of the supernatural elements but also because the time period seems a perfect fit for his visual style. Nosferatu was the biggest box office hit of Eggers' career, bringing in $181 million worldwide including $95 million domestically. The film was also a hit with critics, who sparked to the visual style that would lead to four Oscar nominations in the crafts categories of Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling. Next up for Eggers is the Focus Features pic Werwulf, which he plans to shoot later this year. Dafoe has become the director's muse of late, having previously appeared in his past three films: The Lighthouse, The Northman and Nosferatu. Eggers is repped by Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz. Dafoe is repped by WME and Circle Management + Production. Best of Deadline 'Stick' Release Guide: When Do New Episodes Come Out? 'Stick' Soundtrack: All The Songs You'll Hear In The Apple TV+ Golf Series 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
San Francisco Chronicle
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Wes Anderson created a ‘Phoenician Scheme' immersive experience at S.F.'s Alamo Drafthouse
If you ever wondered what it's like to be inside a Wes Anderson movie, well, you likely will still be wondering after exploring 'The Phoenician Scheme Immersive Experience.' The new installation at the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission unveiled Wednesday, June 4, as part of a promotion for the new film ' The Phoenician Scheme ' is more of a vibe than an immersion. But it's admittedly ambitious and kinda fun. The display at the San Francisco movie house comes just two days before Anderson's latest star-studded project opens in theaters on Friday, June 6, and will be up through June 20. Developed by Alamo and Focus Features, the distributor of the film, the installation was created with input from the director himself along with the film's production designer, Adam Stockhausen, and set decorator, Anna Pinnock. The movie, which stars Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson and many others, is set in the 1950s and is among Anderson and co-writer Roman Coppola's sweetest films. Mike Sampson, Alamo Drafthouse's director of field marketing, noted that an installation based on Anderson's last movie, ' Asteroid City ' (2023), was created for the Alamo Drafthouse in New York, but the production design of 'The Phoenician Scheme' demanded an older theater. The New Mission at 2550 Mission St. was built in 1916 and was renovated into an Alamo Drafthouse cinema in 2015. 'We realized that the aesthetics of the film really matched the ornate architecture here in New Mission, and we knew it might be a tougher ask to say that we wanted it to be exclusive here,' Sampson said. 'But once we showed (Focus) the space and did a video walk-through with them, they immediately bought into the vision, and they were on board with having it here and having an exclusive.' Spanning two floors, 'The Phoenician Scheme Immersive Experience' includes recreations of a train used by characters played by Hanks and Bryan Cranston, and part of the plane used by the billionaire played by del Toro. The New Mission also is featuring a cocktail menu inspired by the film, with concoctions such as Espresso Human Rights (Casamigos Reposado Tequila, Mr Black Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur, almond orgeat, Averna Amaro and cold brew coffee) and the Hemingway Daiquiri (Don Q Cristal rum, Luxardo Maraschino liqueur, pressed lime and grapefruit juices, and a cherry).
Forbes
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Michael Cera On ‘The Phoenician Scheme' And The Wes Anderson TikTok Trend: ‘To Imitate Wes, It Would Take A Lot More Than Just That'
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 28: Michael Cera attends Focus Features' "The Phoenician Scheme" New York ... More Premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 28, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images) During a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, where Wes Anderson was premiering The Phoenician Scheme, the director declared that he felt like he had already worked with Michael Cera before, just because of how natural it felt to have him join the movie. And it's true, some would say that Michael Cera and Wes Anderson were a match made in heaven. The two artists even shook hands and swore they would work again together, in front of all the journalists who attended the conference. 'Wes and I, we have known each other for a long time, and we have been in touch a lot over the years,' Michael Cera told me over Zoom. Cera portrays Bjorn, a young Norwegian and insect expert who becomes Zsa-zsa Korda's tutor in that area. Benicio del Toro's character, Korda, is a rich businessman who somehow constantly narrowly escapes assassination attempts. He is also someone who likes to learn and be surrounded by tutors who are experts in a certain topic, and that's when Bjorn comes into play. The particular thing about Bjorn is that he always stands behind everyone else, where he can observe everything. Is he just shy? Or is he plotting something else? I asked the actor how where his character stood in each scene informed him on who Bjorn really was. Cera said, 'He's got his own agenda going on back there, he's always hovering closely, always having an ear on the situation, and you kind of find out later what he was really up to, but that was something we figured out a lot in rehearsal, like he's always kind of there. And then he sheds his skin and becomes someone else, but that was definitely intentional.' Michael Cera and Mia Threapleton in 'The Phoenician Scheme' The actor then shared how his costume, his big round glasses and his strong norwegian accent helped him bring Bjorn to life. He said, 'The glasses in particular had a very, very, strong prescription, so they changed the way your eyes look, they make your eyes smaller, so you just feel like you have a different face, like you're wearing a mask, you feel very different, inhabited suddenly too. I see that with my 3-year-old, he puts on a mask and he becomes a wild animal. It gives you the confidence to create something new. The outfits too, which are so beautifully designed and built from the ground up, it gives you a sense of character. You look in the mirror and see what you look like, it informs you from the outside in, on who you are creating. And it gives you an idea on how to support that, from the inside out.' Cera praised Anderson's way to work with storyboards and shared how helpful it can be for an actor to see what the next scene is going to look like. He said, 'The storyboards, they are sort of animated movies, and Wes does the voices. You get a sense of the movie, you learn a lot that way. You don't worry about blocking.' The actor then detailed how they shot the quicksands scene, where Cera jumps into quicksands to save Zsa-zsa. He said, 'There's no visual effects, that's how it looked in the camera, brilliant trick. Basically, it's a pool of water, there's a layer of cork on top of it that looks like sand. You just dive right through it, and it was pitch black under there. I had a couple of days of rehearsal and when we shot it, I just did one take.' We then spoke about how Wes Anderson's movies are so visually unique, but also about how they should not just be reduced to an aesthetic. In 2023, TikTokers started a trend that went viral, by filming their lives as if they were in a Wes Anderson movie, from using pastels colors to symmetrical frames. On the trend, Cera said, 'It's kind of reductive to only talk about the aesthetic. I think the biggest reason his movies resonate with people is because of the writing and the feelings that are in his movies. If it was only the style and the aesthetic, they wouldn't be as impactful as they are. The impact comes from the amazing warmth and the feeling of love, which goes for all his movie, there are all about connection someway or another. But I think that's why his movies affect people, even though it's easy to overlook it because writing is sort of invisible.' CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 19: Wes Anderson, Michael Cera, Mia Threapleton and Benicio del Toro during ... More "The Phoenician Scheme" photocall at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images) He added: 'I think it's a little uncreative. To imitate Wes, it would take a lot more than just that. I think you have to be a great writer too. He created those worlds, not just visually but he created them from his imagination too. It's his world, like The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, the whole family, the life they live out there, it's an amazing world to create.' Cera drew a parallel between Anderson's way to approach storytelling to Japanese filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu's. He said, 'Ozu never really strayed from his approach, I think he used one land for every movie, all the time. So all these movies kinda have the same grammar but it's not true to say, if you've seen one movie you've seen them all. Because he told a million stories with that language and they're all powerful in their own way, and they're experimental in their own ways too. It's instantly recognizable but it's too reductive to say that it means you know what you're getting into when you're putting one of his movies on.' Cera will soon be making his directorial debut with Love is not the Answer, starring Pamela Anderson and Jamie Dornan. I asked the actor if working with Anderson helped him get a sense of how he was going to enter this industry from a director's point of view for the first time. He said, 'I think that as an actor, you're always watching a director and how they run a set. You learn a lot from great directors just by seing how they conduct themselves and how they communicate with their team, how they keep the spirit alive and keep everyone motivated. It's a big part of the job actually, being a cheerleader and keeping the energy good because there's a lot of pressure on a director. If he's loosing confidence or feeling the pressure, it can affect everything, and it kind of trickles down.' He added: 'Wes' spirit on set is amazing, he's very enthusiastic, he's a great host, he's very responsible for the energy. He keeps things very bright, I loved watching him do that.' The Phoenician Scheme is now playing in theaters.
Forbes
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Wes Anderson On ‘The Phoenician Scheme', His Creative Process And How He Chooses His Movie Titles
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 28: Wes Anderson attends Focus Features' "The Phoenician Scheme" New York ... More Premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 28, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images) Wes Anderson's latest movie The Phoenician Scheme, stars Benicio del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda, a rich businessman who has survived many assassination attempts and who just designated his only daughter, Liesl, a nun played by Mia Threapleton, as sole heir of his estate. The filmmaker's career is currently being honored at the French Cinemateque in Paris, where the visitors can admire set pieces, costumes, props and photos from their favorite Anderson's movies. Anderson also lent the Cinemateque some of his work notebooks, with the temporary titles used for every single one of his films. For exemple, The Darjeeling Limited used to be called India Movie for a while, and Moonrise Kingdom or The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, were respectively named The Island Movie and The Oceanographer Movie. While speaking with the filmmaker over Zoom, I asked him about the temporary title of The Phoenician Scheme, and how he came up with the final titles of his films. He said, ''The Phoenician Scheme's temporary title was probably The Tycoon Movie.'' He added: ''Usually, I feel like we're kind of waiting to hear it, or one of us will say it accidentally or something like that. But you know, I had a funny conversation with a reporter from Germany the other day, who really hated the title of The Phoenician Scheme, and he especially hated the German translation, which was even more complicated. But he asked me, 'Do you think a bad title can ruin a good movie?' And I said 'Gosh I hope not, I mean…''' Anderson explained that in German, the title translated to The Phoenician Master Scheme, so Der Phönizische Meisterstreich. Yes, it is way more complicated than the original one. Anderson joked, ''It's a worse title in German!'' Wes Anderson's notebooks displayed at the Wes Anderson exhibition in Paris. For The Phoenician Scheme, Anderson collaborated once again with French music composer, Alexandre Desplat. The two artists have been working together ever since Fantastic came out in 2009. Anderson said, ''Alexandre and I have worked in different ways on different movies, because a movie like Fantastic or The Grand Budapest Hotel, or even The French Dispatch, there's a lot of music and a lot of different pieces. Whereas a movie like Isle of Dogs, there's music all the time, but most of the music is just drumming and something very simple, there's probably 1, 2 or 3 themes. It's really the same music played in different ways and reinterpreted. The same with Moonrise Kingdom, there's essentially one piece, but many different arrangements.'' He added: ''This new one, there is less music, but it is quite a lot darker, it's quite simple, it's an interpretation of Stravinsky's theme from the Firebird. So there's a lot of actual Stravinsky and then, there's Alexandre's kind of dark score. We work very closely together because we've been friends for so long, and he used to live very close to me in Paris. And his new atelier is close to me as well, so we work in the same quartier together, and we have fun. You know Alexandre is the only composer I know that will come with us to the Cannes Film Festival and do everything with us, he likes to be part of it all. He's brilliant, he's got a very special kind of musical mind.'' CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 18: Alexandre Desplat, Wes Anderson and Mia Threapleton attends the "The ... More Phoenician Scheme" red carpet at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 18, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images) Anderson is known for storyboarding his movies and showing what the next scene is going to look like to his cast. While this method has been praised by many of the actors he has collaborated with, Anderson revealed that it mostly has to do with budget and timing. "We do the script first, but often when I'm writing the script, I might have ideas of how we might film it, so I might have some notes or a plan on how we might stage something, especially what we might build, what the set might be like. Nowadays, when we have maybe 10 or 15 pages, we start working on this storyboard version because it's very time consuming. So I don't wait until we have the whole script. But the script always comes first, we might just do a first section of the script and begin it.'' He added: ''The reason we do the storyboards has not really anything to do with the actors, it has to do with the construction of the sets, to know what we need to build, so we can built the most efficiently. We don't build more than we need, essentially, it's a way to make the movie within our budget. But it's a way to make something that maybe will feel bigger than our budget would normally allow. It's also a part of the process where I can take the time to really dream about what we might do, without a lot of pressure or people around. It's a version of writing, but for the visual part, for how to shoot it. I like that experience.'' NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 28: (L-R) Scott Shepherd, F. Murray Abraham, Hope Davis, Bryan Cranston, ... More Mia Threapleton, Wes Anderson, Benicio del Toro, Stephen Park, Michael Cera, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Hanks attend Focus Features' "The Phoenician Scheme" New York Premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 28, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/WireImage) Anderson told me that he has worked with the same two collaborators for years, a storyboard artist named Jay Clarke, and his editor, Edward Bursch, who first started as Anderson's assistant. This storyboarding method comes from animation, even if in that case, a whole team of people is needed to work on it. ''Here, it's just the three of us,'' Anderson told me. I told Anderson that I had interviewed Lyna Khoudri a few years ago, for the release of The French Dispatch. The actress had then shared an anecdote about the director gifting a pair of traditional French slippers called Charentaises to the entire cast. Anderson said, ''Oui! Because we were in Charentes, we needed the charentaises for the prisoners in our story, they all have these charentaises with stripes, yes, but then it became a present for everyone.'' Anderson jumped on this opportunity to share that he would love to work with Khoudri again. He said, ''But you know, Lyna, she's very, very good! I would like to do another film with her because so far I haven't had the chance.'' He added: ''She was playing with Frances McDormand and Timothée Chalamet, and she was very forceful. Playing these scenes with Frances McDormand, she was very confronting! She's speaking French and English back and forth, there is a lot of dialogue, it's a difficult task for an actor and she was perfect.'' The Phoenician Scheme is now playing in theaters.
