Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme Scheduled for Summer Release

      Two years following Asteroid City, prepare for another summer with Wes Anderson. Focus Features announced today that the director's newest film, The Phoenician Scheme, his first since winning an Oscar, will have a limited release starting May 30, 2025, before expanding to a wider release on June 6. This strategy suggests that the director and his star-studded cast are gearing up for a premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

      The film revolves around a family and its business and is co-written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola. It features Benicio del Toro as Zsa-zsa Korda, one of Europe’s wealthiest men; Mia Threapleton as Sister Liesl, his daughter and a nun; and Michael Cera as Bjorn Lund, their tutor. The ensemble cast also includes Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Richard Ayoade, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, and Benedict Cumberbatch.

      Robert Yeoman, who has filmed all of Anderson's live-action features as well as his recent Oscar-winning short, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, took a break from collaborating with Anderson. Bruno Delbonnel steps in as the director of photography, similar to his role for the Coen brothers when Roger Deakins was unavailable for Inside Llewyn Davis. Delbonnel is known for his work on films like Amélie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Across the Universe, and The Tragedy of Macbeth. This won't be the first collaboration between the cinematographer and Wes Anderson, as he shot Anderson’s H&M holiday commercial “Come Together” and made a brief appearance in The French Dispatch.