Water Water Everywhere

Royal Tenenbaums director Wes Anderson is heading to pastures, or oceans, new for the filming of his fourth feature film. The US writer/director is going to Italy to film the comedy/adventure picture The Life Aquatic and he's bringing some old friends with him. Variety announced today that Anderson will be joined in Rome by his regular co-worker Owen Wilson, Rushmore and Tenenbaums collaborator Bill Murray, and Tenenbaums alumni Angelica Huston, together with new boy Jeff Goldblum. The film itself is typically off-the-wall Anderson territory and is the story of oceanographer Steve Zissou who takes a crew into deep-sea exploration for a mythical shark. The Life Aquatic is the latest in an ever-lengthening line of American movies to be shot at Cinecitta Studios in the wake of Scorsese and Gangs of New York. After Scorsese trumpeted the studios facilities, features including Mel Gibson's The Passion, Heath Ledger's The Order and the prequel to The Exorcist, (hmmn, notice a theme there?) have all been shot at the studios just outside Rome.