About a week ago, the good burghers over at Twitch caught word on the wind of a whisper about Wes Anderson reaching out to what would frankly be his most star-studded and eclectic cast yet. While we’re not sure everyone on the list will end up in the final film, he has at least locked in one of the biggest names, with Johnny Depp signing on the dotted for The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Deadline could dig up no details about the project besides the title, but we’re happy to see another cinematic universe besides the Avengers coming together; the new building-based film will apparently share characters with The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel… Okay, we’re kidding about that. Anderson, of course, has previous form in hotel-based movies, with short Hotel Chevalier in his back catalogue and key scenes in The Royal Tenenbaums set in a big New York pile (not to mention the motels in Bottle Rocket) so there's probably a film studies essay to be written about that once this movie hits screens.
But the new movie does represent Anderson leaping back on the horse to ride the clout that has come with the success of his most recent effort, Moonrise Kingdom, which has earned more than $44 million worldwide to become the arthouse hit of the summer.
The director wrote the script for this new project, but there’s no word yet on when he’ll get started, though the report does mention that Depp appears ready to make it his next project. With one, big name aboard, we now expect a torrent of other casting announcements, especially since Anderson also approached the likes of Owen Wilson, Edward Norton, Jude Law, Jeff Goldblum, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Angela Lansbury and, naturally, Bill Murray to appear. Expect Murray to almost definitely crop up (it really wouldn’t be an Anderson affair without him at this point) and, we’d guess, most of the others, assuming schedules work out.
Depp, who had been developing a new take on The Thin Man, is currently at work on** The Lone Ranger **with Pirates pal Gore Verbinski.
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