Focus Features

In the video "Circle of Wes Expands," Slate's Jacob Weisberg sits down with MOONRISE KINGDOM's Wes Anderson to talk about the film and its remarkable ensemble cast, including Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton and Frances McDormand - to name just a few. Fascinating bit about Edward Norton bunking with Anderson and Murray.

Image above from Andrew H. Walker/Getty Image) New York Times Critic Manohla Dargis reports from the 65th Cannes Film Festival about the opening night reception of Wes Anderson's MOONRISE KINGDOM, and the warm camaraderie of the cast and director. In the press conference, for example, Bill Murray joked, when asked about being a mainstay of Wes Anderson's film, "I really don't get any other work but through Wes."  But the work according to Dargis is remarkable: "The film is one of Mr. Anderson's supreme achievements: It's wondrously beautiful, often droll and at times hauntingly melancholic."

London's Evening Standard joined the legion of media outlets reporting on Wes Anderson's MOONRISE KINGDOM's opening night bow at the Cannes Film Festival. Anderson was joined by his legendary cast which (as shown above) included Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Bob Balaban and newcomers Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward. Earlier in the day, during the press conference, as the Standard reports, Wes Anderson commented:

When we start it's a little bit of a reunion and I like to think now I have a bigger family to draw on....I hope that some of the friends that I've made on this movie will be available to me in the future.

In the spectacularly art-directed spread in Harper's Bazaar -- Photographer: Jake Chessum; Fashion Editor: Roxane Danset -- Laura Brown checks into "Wes's World." While MOONRISE KINGDOM is set on an island, Brown points out "Wes Anderson's films are not islands; they are entire worlds." It's a delightful profile of Anderson and his work, with quotes from many of the his actors, including his most recent Kara Hayward (pictured above with Bill Murray). Hayward, who'd never acted professionally before, plays 12-year Suzy in the film. For her:

It's so interesting to see how he takes this vision and turns it into a real-life place....I sure hope that I get to work with him again.

Chicago Tribune's Michael Philips reports from the Cannes Film Festival about  his hometown's funniest son - Bill Murray. Murray, whose has worked with MOONRISE KINGDOM's director Wes Anderson on many films, praised the director's style and advancement while at the Cannes Film Festival, where MOONRISE KINGDOM is the opening night film. As Philips reports, Murray's compliments of the director at the MOONRISE KINGDOM's press conference are delivered in the most exquisite round-about way:

Sometimes...when you work with a director you know you not only may never see him again, sometimes you hope you never seen him again. And that goes for the director as well. They can't wait for you to leave. They drive you to the airport to make sure you leave. That happens.... With Wes, I've never gotten a ride to the airport.

MOONRISE KINGDOM's Wes Anderson sits down with Slate's Jacob Weisberg to talk filmmaking, child actors and the legacy of François Truffaut.

ADMISSION, Paul Weitz's new comedy about  a college entrance official, starts production this week in New York and New Jersey. And its cast is at the top of their class: Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Michael Sheen, Gloria Reuben, Wallace Shawn, and Lily Tomlin. The comedy, adapted by Karen Croner and Mr. Weitz from Jean Hanff Korelitz's 2009 novel of the same name, focuses on Portia Nathan (Tina Fey), an admissions officer at Princeton University whose life plans are drastically altered after visiting an experimental New Hampshire high school. There she meets with the co-founder John Halsey (Paul Rudd), who introduces her to a student who might just be the son she gave up for adoption nearly two decades before.

In making ADMISSION, director and co-writer Paul Weitz is reteaming with many of the people he worked with on BEING FLYNN: Producer Andrew Miano, Academy-Award nominated executive producer Caroline Baron; director of photography Declan Quinn; production designer Sarah Knowles; editor Joan Sobel; and costume designer Aude Bronson-Howard. For CEO James Schamus, "Everyone at Focus is delighted to be continuing our collaboration with Paul Weitz, a truly humane filmmaker. As always, Paul has joined with an amazing cast, for a story that promises not only laughs and tears, but the deep pleasures of understanding and empathy." Focus holds worldwide rights to ADMISSION, and will commence sales at this month's Cannes International Film Festival.

For full information, check official press release.

In the Sunday New York Times, Dennis Lim's profile "Giving Chase to Young Love on the Run: Wes Anderson's MOONRISE KINGDOM With Bill Murray," presents filmmaker Wes Anderson talking about the film's origins and his creative process. While much of the film's look and feel is an extension of Anderson's marvelous imagination, there are elements here rooted to very specific emotions. Anderson explains:

This is the only time I've been consciously trying to capture a sensation, which is that emotion of when you're a 12-year-old and you fall in love....I remember that being such a powerful feeling, it was almost like going into a fantasy world. It's stuck with me enough that I think about it still.

In the upcoming issue of Filmmaker Magazine, MOONRISE KINGDOM's Wes Anderson stands - well actually crouches - proud. Inside is a smart interview between Wes Anderson and Faber and Faber editor (and sometime contributor to our site) Walter Donohue about the process of making MOONRISE KINGDOM. While the issue is now on newstands, the interview is not yet online. But they gave us a special taste. Donohue asks, "Something must have happened when you made Fantastic Mr. Fox because quite early on in MOONRISE KINGDOM, I felt that the imaginative freedom you had in the animated film blossomed in the new film. It's hard to put my finger on it, but it seems that between The Darjeeling Limited and MOONRISE KINGDOM, something happened."

WES ANDERSON: Just in terms of the process of doing movies, when we made Mr. Fox, as you always do when you make an animated movie, we began with storyboards. Then you set the voices to them, and you set the music to them, and, basically, you make the whole movie before you shoot it. And we did quite a bit of that with this new, non-animated movie. We had a lot of the same people working on it. So we would say: With this sequence, just so we don't mess it up, let's make an animated version of the whole thing. And we did a lot of the movie that way. In fact, we ended up going to the locations, and we used ourselves as stand-ins for the actors, and said, "Let's pre-shoot this scene and pre-edit it." Of course, it's nothing like the movie because it's not the right people, and there were rarely any props or costumes or anything, but we were able to work out what we needed for the scene. So we were the most prepared on a day-to-day basis that I've ever been.

... Click "Read More" for the rest.

The award season may be over, but the Golden Trailers are coming up, which seems oddly appropriate for awards given to the best movie trailers (even though trailers actually now come first).  Actually the Golden Trailers, which "recognize the creative people who make movie trailers, and the best examples of their unique art, in a gala award show," also celebrate key art and other film marketing. We are thrilled that again Focus Features is notably recognized with seven nominations. TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY picked up four nods: Best Drama Trailer (Mark Woollen & Associates); Best Thriller Trailer (Empire Design); Best Drama Poster (Ignition Print); and Best Independent Poster (Ignition Print). ONE DAY garnered two nominations: Best Romance Trailer (Empire Design); Best Romance TV Spot (Kinetic Trailers). And our Africa First collection got a nom as well: Best Foreign TV Spot (Big Science Film Inc.). Congratulations to all for such great work.