This is going to be a long-ass post, get ready. Fox Searchlight and all those involved with Wes Anderson’s upcoming animated picture, “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” have played it fairly quiet regarding the November 13th release. Our only insight, thus far, has been a few ambiguous and intriguing stills that hit a few weeks ago.
But USA Today now gives us a massive “first look” at the film, which features the voice work of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and a few other Anderson regulars. Not only are their production stills from the film, but behind the scenes photos featuring Bill Murray, Mr. Anderson, and a good deal of the miniatures. BTW, USA Today re-confirms what we’ve said a few times now. Streep plays the wife fox, not Cate Blanchett.
The paper also basically re-confirms much of the rest of the cast that we reported months ago, voice actors like Wallace Wolodarsky (a onetime writer for “The Simpsons” and a good friend of Andersons, and Noah Taylor’s character in ‘Life Aquatic’ was named after him), Eric Anderson (Wes’ brother and illustrator, see all his DVD covers) and Jarvis Cocker from Pulp (who also wrote some music for the soundtrack).
Additional names not mentioned in the article, but have small guest voice appearances include Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and director Roman Coppola who was Anderson’s 2nd-unit director on “The Darjeeling Limited” (he also co-wrote the picture too).
Anderson’s love for the characters seems genuine and not just some flight of fancy or a chance to switch gears. “It was the first book I ever actually owned,” he said. “My brothers and I loved Mr. Fox and all the digging. We were obsessed with being underground with forts and tunnels.” It’s also interesting to note that the film got a PG-rating due to “implied language,” because everytime the characters swear in the movie they exclaim, “cuss!”
The article also confirms some music we’ve already reported including the use of The Beach Boys, plus a folk song by Burl Ives and “Let Her Dance” by ’60s band, the Bobby Fuller Four, best known for the song, “I Fought The Law.” Here’s a listen to, “Let Her Dance.”
Now…if USA Today isn’t filling your “Mr. Fox” quota for the day…be sure to check out the film’s official website to see a few more new photos, and head over to Amazon.com to secure your own “Movie Tie-in Edition” of Roald Dahl’s story in paperback (synergy!) which is the same old kids novel, but with new pictures from the film. It hits stories on October 1, a full month and a half before the film comes out on November 13.
The flood gates seem to have been officially been opened on ‘Mr. Fox,’ and there is only one question that remains:When will we see a trailer? – Alexander Sablow
We were going to post all 18 photos, but we decided against it. Can’t wait until after the jump finally hits blogger in August (holy crap, how many years after the fact? 😉 You can hopefully see the rest of them on our photobucket account. Also here’s a ‘Fantastic Fox’ fox tie spotted at Comic-Con.