Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
I never read RUSHMORE. I read about half of THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS before I had to set it down the first time. I am a firm believer that Wes Anderson movies in screenplay form bear little or no resemblance to Wes Anderson films in the theater. The scripts are more literary. They’re quieter. The films themselves are so exquisitely, carefully designed that half of the experience of watching one is getting lost in the corners, away from the things you’re normally supposed to be paying attention to. The Dalmatian mice in TENENBAUMS. The band-aids in BOTTLE ROCKET. That room with all the board games seemingly ever made, all jammed in on top of each other. The wallpaper. The sets for Max Fisher’s plays in RUSHMORE. None of that is in his screenplays. It’s in his head until it’s on the screen. So why in the world would I pick up a copy of THE LIFE AQUATIC, written by Anderson with co-writer Noah Baumbach?
Because, silly rabbits, I have impulse control issues. Look, all flurries of verbiage aside, Wes Anderson is one of the most interesting filmmakers working right now, the love child of J.D. Salinger and Hal Ashby. What really makes me sick about the guy is that he’s basically my age. I know how I feel about myself and my status in the rank and file in Hollywood (I’m a guy who has never gotten a film greenlit, and that means I’m nothing but a question mark right now), and I am amazed to see guys my age or younger who have put it all together. I have boundless respect for the particular corner of the cinematic universe that Anderson’s carving out for himself, film by fascinating film. He’s like PT Anderson to me, or David Fincher, or Spike Jonze, or the Coen Brothers. He is a genre all by himself. And no matter how much I am convinced that I’m not going to really get the whole thing off the page, I still find that I’m intensely, almost preposterously curious about what Anderson’s up to.
Basically, I broke down on the plane to Montreal. It’s a long script, 140 pages, but it doesn’t read like a long film. Instead, it almost feels like a sketch, a suggestion of the film that will eventually result. There’s a deceptive simplicity to the way the script is built that makes you think nothing’s happening at first. It is, though. Right up front, we meet Steve Zissou (Bill Murray, picking another winner to follow up this fall’s LOST IN TRANSLATION), who is nothing like Jacques Cousteau. Oh, sure, he’s an oceanographer who makes a series of documentaries called “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” all about his various trips. That’s true. But Zissou is a barely functional human being who is propped up as a figurehead hero in a successful series of documentaries called “The Life Aquatic.” His wife Eleanor (I’m guessing this is the role Anjelica Huston is going to play) is the real brains of the operation, and his partner Esteban (no clue, but Willem Dafoe would be a scream in the part) is the heart of the thing. At the opening of the film, Zissou is in shock as he premieres his new documentary. In it, Esteban is eaten by the elusive jaguar shark. Unfortunately, Zissou managed to drop the camera at the crucial moment, and Esteban’s death was for nothing. The jaguar shark got away without ever being caught on film, and it took Zissou’s hopes and dreams with it. He’s at the end of his resources, not sure he will ever make another film. The premiere is a disaster, and his rival Alistair Hennessey (please let this be Jeff Goldblum... please let this be Jeff Goldblum...) relishes the opportunity to rub Zissou’s nose in it.
In the midst of this darkest hour, Zissou meets a young man named Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson, if I’m not mistaken), who may just be Zissou’s long-lost son. Plimpton has money of his own, and agrees to finance a film about the search for the jaguar shark that killed Esteban, as long as he gets to go along and get to know Zissou on the journey. Factor in the various personalities that make up the crew of Zissou’s ship and the people that they encounter along the way, and you’ve got more than enough ingredients for another quirky family comedy. Eccentricity abounds, and there are at least a dozen various character storylines to follow. Yet, somehow, Anderson manages to avoid this just being an ocean-bound TENENBAUMS. For one thing, this is an adventure movie. It’s a very strange adventure, but just this structural difference makes this a whole new experience for Anderson fans. The heart of the movie is the relationship that develops between Zissou and Ned, and the way it’s complicated by the introduction of a reporter named Jane Winslett-Richardson, from OCEANOGRAPHIC EXPLORER. This pretty much has to be Cate Blanchett, and she’ll be perfect. Watching Bill Murray and Owen Wilson compete for her, and watching how she wrestles with her own feelings for each of them... this should be a treat. It’s an exciting cast. It’s got to be amazing on that set... the energy between these people.
I’ve heard rumors about a stop-motion animation unit having been set up to handle certain elements of the film, and I guess my first thought is, “What? What the hell kind of crazy-ass thing is that?” Don’t get me wrong. I am a sucker for stop-motion animation. I just don’t know how that’s going to play in an age where most people are hypercritical of even the most photo-real digital work being done. Audiences have become harsh judges of FX work, and the slightest whiff of the fake brings out the bloodthirsty in otherwise rational fanboys. The notion of using an all stop-motion crew is pretty bold. Henry Selick tried for MONKEYBONE, but the studio lost its nerve and cut the budget and the schedule so dramatically that by the time the film was released, all the sequences that should have been filled with stop motion creatures were instead populated by actors in cheap costumes on shitty sets. Brilliant.
Maybe there’s been a shift in perception, though. One of the coolest things Jon Favreau talked about when I was on the set of ELF was how he intentionally worked with the production designer of the film to get a very Rankin-Bass animated stop-motion feel to the world. I think they nailed it, too, and there’s something really appealing about that aesthetic. I trust Anderson’s taste implicitly by this point. I trust that he’s going to create something really memorable with this script as the blueprint, and I’m excited to see it come together. If I got any of the cast mixed up above in terms of who’s playing what, I am sorry. I tried to label things as best guesses if I wasn’t sure. I haven’t seen a good cast list that matched the actors up to the characters they’re playing. I’m excited by the way I pictured the film as I read the script, but I’m more excited by the surprises I’m sure I still have in store when I actually see the world realized. All I got was a sneak peek, a little glimpse of what we’ll all get later. But it was enough to tell you it’s going to be something special, and I’ll keep my ear out for anything to report on the film in the months ahead.
"Moriarty" out.
