Wes Anderson’s ‘Isle of Dogs’ opens spring 2018
Fans of Wes Anderson will be happy to hear that his next film, Isle of Dogs, has been given a release date by Fox Searchlight Pictures. The downside? We’ll have a while to wait, as it won’t arrive in theaters until April 20, 2018.
The film, produced in London by Indian Paintbrush, will be set in Japan and tell the story of a boy’s odyssey in search of his dog.
Isle of Dogs, Anderson’s second animated feature film, will employ similar stop-motion techniques as his 2009 adaption of Roald Dahl’s children’s novel Fantastic Mr. Fox, nominated for a BAFTA for Best Animated Film.
Considering Anderson’s filmic relationship with man’s best friend – after all, he’s previously killed them off in Moonrise Kingdom and The Royal Tenenbaums – we hope the canines have a better fate in store for Isle of Dogs.
Anderson’s ability to “write smart and unconventional screenplays and then translate them into unique experiences on screen makes him not only a unique voice in film, but one who can truly bridge the gap between independent films and cross-over hits,” said Nancy Utley and Steve Gilula, Fox Searchlight Pictures presidents.
“Wes Anderson is one of the most talented filmmakers of his, or any other, generation”, they added. It’s seems a lofty statement until one considers almost the entirety of his output has been included in the prestigious Criterion Collection and only last year Rushmore was inducted into the National Film Registry.
The voice cast for Isle of Dogs includes Edward Norton (Fight Club), Bill Murray (Ghostbusters), Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park), Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin), Bryan Cranston (AMC’s Breaking Bad), Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation), Akira Ito (Birdman), Liev Schreiber (Spotlight) and, interestingly, performance artist Yoko Ono.
Isle of Dogs will be Anderson’s first feature since The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014, and the fifth time that he’s collaborated with Indian Paintbrush. That’s quite a gap between projects and we can’t wait to see how it pays off.
