Out on the press rounds for Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects, several sources have taken the opportunity to collar Jude Law for info on other projects. Sadly, Werner Herzog's Gertrude Bell biopic seems to be off the table for now, and there's not much sign yet of Sherlock Holmes 3. But Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel is certainly underway, and Law has been able to reveal some small clues as to its nature and his role within it.
Stories and storytelling, presumably all linked to the edifice of the title, seem to be the order of the day in Anderson's follow-up to the garlanded Moonrise Kingdom. Whether you'd call The Grand Budapest Hotel a portmanteau movie remains to be seen, but it does appear from what Law's been saying that the film will contain tales within tales.
"I play an author," he told Collider, "and there are sort of several sections. It's about storytelling. There's someone who plays me at an older age, and they're recounting how they were first told a certain story, and then you cut to me being told that story, and then you cut to the story. It's sort of layers of storytelling."
To The Playlist meanwhile, Law revealed that the film is "mostly set in the '30s, and my bit is set in the '60s." He also stressed that he's only a small part of the larger whole: "It's a tiny, tiny role. I've just done it. It was five days of work."
More questions than answers then, but a bit of Anderson intrigue is always welcome of a Tuesday morning. The director's vague descriptions so far have indicated "a European story" that draws on his experiences since being domiciled in France, and that the main character "is a bit crazy, and has a personal mind-reader with a teenage assistant".
Along with Law, the cast, as far as we know, can currently boast Anderson veterans Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody and Jeff Goldblum. They're joined by Ralph Fiennes, Saoirse Ronan, Harvey Keitel, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Willem Dafoe and Angela Lansbury. The film's expected to be released sometime in 2014.
Side Effects is out in the UK on March 15.