What I Want Wes Anderson To Do Next
Wes Anderson is one of the most popular auteurs of the 21st century. Starting with Bottle Rocket in 1996, Anderson has directed and written ten feature films and several shorts and commercials. Whether it’s his most acclaimed and popular works such as The Grand Budapest Hotel, Fantastic Mr. Fox or The Royal Tenenbaums or his more underrated features like The Darjeeling Limited, a Wes Anderson film is unmistakable.
For most people reading this, Wes Anderson’s distinct visual style needs no introduction, colorful, perfectly symmetrical frames, close up shots of objects, snap zooms and more, it’s pretty easy to recognize his films. At times it can feel like he’s reduced down to just aesthetics when his scripts all feature common themes as well. A fascination with youth, familial relationships, and grief all permeate through his works which can make watching his films quite an emotional viewing experience. He has quite a dedicated fanbase but on the other side he is quite derided as well, many people find his films to be pretentious, too quirky and lacking in substance.
Personally I’ve grown from indifferent to a fan of Wes Anderson over the years and where others feel he’s gotten stale, I actually enjoy the maximalism of his newer films. There’s something fun about him refusing to tame eccentricities in the face of criticism.
His filmmaking has been parodied, homage-ed, critiqued and analyzed to death by just about everyone but I wanted to propose a simple question for the Wes Anderson ethos.
What’s next?
While I doubt we’ll ever see Wes Anderson stray away from character driven, comedy-dramas that are his claim to fame (don’t worry I don’t need a horror film from him), I have four suggestions for what I think he should direct next.
Traditional Animation
Wes Anderson is no stranger to the world of animation. Films like The Life Aquatic of Steve Zissou and The Grand Budapest Hotel use stop motion in bits and pieces and he’s also directed two fully stop motion films, Fantastic Mr. Fox (in my opinion his best) and Isle of Dogs.
In his newest film, The French Dispatch, he tries his hand at 2D animation. An exciting three minute car chase scene is used in an animation style inspired by Belgian cartoonist Hergé and his popular comics The Adventures of Tintin.
Wes Anderson is somewhat of a francophile. While born and raised in America, he lives his adult life in Paris, and many of films take inspiration from classic French cinema. France has quite a prolific animation and comic industry that’s highly underrated on the world stage compared to their live action fair. I’m a huge fan of French (and European in general) animated cinema and their gritty, naturalist style compared to more popular American and Japanese industry. Knowing Anderson’s love for French culture and art, I think it just makes sense that he fully dives in and directs a 2D animated film. The French Dispatch was even filmed in Angoulême, the center of the French animation and video game industry.
Animation is already a great medium for whimsy and eccentricity, so it will fit right into Anderson’s wheelhouse.
Black & White
While known for being the king of color, Anderson has experimented with black & white cinematography too. A notable scene in the climax of The Grand Budapest Hotel removes color to signify sadness. The French Dispatch takes this even further, switching back and forth from color to black & white, using the color sequences as metaphors for our main characters’ emotions. The black & white scenes in the film do a good job of highlighting how even in the absence of color, Anderson style still remains as distinct and engaging as ever. So maybe it’s time to cash in on the growing resurgence of modern black & white films?
Black & white cinema never truly died off, Schindler’s List and Raging Bull were huge hits made way past the implementation of color cinematography but last year saw a huge spike of critically acclaimed black & white films with Belfast, Passing, The Tragedy of Macbeth and C’mon C’mon.
I want to see what Anderson can do without his dizzying pastels to aid his storytelling. Would a fully black & white feature still have the same eccentric and comedic tones of his last films? Or would he opt for a more somber affair to match the new minimalist visuals? I can’t answer that, it’s something I challenge him to try.
Musical
While a Wes Anderson film is visually unmistakable, his films are also notable for their distinct soundtracks and scores.
Anderson loves to set his works to 1960s and 70s pop and rock songs to evoke nostalgia and wistfulness.
Early reports of The French Dispatch had it rumored to be a musical, while those ended up being false, I truly couldn’t shake the idea from my head. What would Wes Anderson’s take on this classic genre look like? There’s a certain sense of rigidity and stoicism to his direction and actor performances that don’t necessarily lend itself immediately to a musical film. But, at the same time, Anderson has gotten better and better at directing large set pieces and intricate action sequences that I think would help him design choreography and music scenes. Or maybe he forgoes a traditional film to make a diegetic musical, having the music heard in the story. I don’t think a film about a fictional rock band or singer would be too far off base for him.
Of course Anderson is also known for working with the same actors over and over again. While some of his actor friends can sing, a musical film may force him to look for a fresher talent pool than his usual stable which could prove to be a unique film from him.
The movie musical used to be ubiquitous to American cinema itself but in the past decades, the genre has fallen off, with only a handful studio pictures made a year. And of those films, most of them are just adaptations of Broadway shows or remakes of older films. The remake, reboot, redone culture has led to an epidemic of bad musicals lately, ones that force themselves to fit into a medium that isn’t made for them.
Good musical films can exist. They just need to be made for the screen in the first place.
While lesser known directors may have difficulty attaining studio backing to make an original film, Anderson may bypass that problem to make something special.
Limited Series
After directing ten features, maybe it’s time for Anderson to take his talents to the small screen. Film directors moving to make television is pretty common, especially lately as the mid budget movie disappears and high budget television and limited series take their spot instead. The French Dispatch and his upcoming film, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar are three separate stories told in one film. Feels almost episodic right?
There’s always danger when someone more versed in film tries to make TV. A lot of times, miniseries made by film directors feel like they’re trying to make a “ten hour movie” versus using individual episodes as building blocks to tell a cohesive story. With that, I would still love to see Anderson’s attempt at it one day and to see how his directing and writing style adapts to the medium.
My Wes Anderson wish list focused on stylistic and medium choices because frankly, it’s futile to predict or ask for a specific Anderson plot. Anderson is only 53 years old and his 10th feature was his most ambitious and experimental film yet. He has a long career ahead of him still and I can’t wait to see how that develops and what risks he takes next.
P.S. Actors who I think would do great in a Wes Anderson film: Skyler Gisondo, Rosa Salazar, Bob Odenkirk, Cristin Milioti, Ayo Edibiri, Helena Howard