Wes Anderson is already eyeing a start date on his 10th movie.
While no title, or even a cast, has yet been established, Anderson has already chosen the picturesque Angoulême in the southwest of France as the location for his new movie with a plan to start filming there later this year. The news comes out of French outlet Sud Ouest (via The Independent), which reports Anderson has selected the small city as the location for his first live-action film since 2010’s The Grand Budapest Hotel.
While details are scarce, The Independent reports that Anderson has scouted out the capital of the Charente region for four months of photography that begins later this year. The film will be set in France immediately after World War II.
Anderson has never made a film set in France before but The Grand Budapest Hotel dealt with the rise of fascism in Europe. Set during the late 1920s, Grand Budapest took place in a fictional nation along the Alps, which saw Anderson’s preferred form of whimsy and classical, symmetrical visual control shattered by the random ugliness of violence that so much defined the rest of history. Picking up that thread after the end of the Second World War in a different location thematically allows Anderson to continue exploring these themes.
While his most recent film, Isle of Dogs, was lighter fare, this seems like a much more meaty prospect for Anderson. One we’ll keep an eye on.