The first clip from director Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City finds Liev Schreiber (Isle of Dogs, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) wielding a death ray. Released courtesy of Focus Features, Asteroid City is gearing up to premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival tomorrow, with early reactions no doubt giving us a much better idea of what to expect from the beloved filmmaker’s sci-fi rom-com drama. Check out the new clip from Asteroid City below.
Asteroid City will tell an anthology of stories after dropping us in 1955, where students and parents from across America have gathered for the Junior Stargazer convention held in a desert town. The movie will tell three over-lapping stories, one of them centering on “a grieving father (Tom Hanks) who finds himself stranded in Asteroid City with his adult children due to an extraterrestrial occurrence at the astronomy festival,” with new clip finding Hanks, Liev Schreiber, and Hope Davis being held hostage by local security forces.
The clip comes following the recent release of the first, stunning trailer for director Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, which offers our first look at the wild romantic comedy-drama and the awesome array of A-listers that will bring Anderson’s latest quirky tale to life. Coming courtesy of Focus Features, the footage drops us in a desert town in 1950s America, and teases the ensemble cast of enchanting characters who find themselves at the center of something earth-shattering.
Asteroid City takes place in a fictional American desert town circa 1955, with the newly released synopsis going on to reveal, “The itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention (organized to bring together students and parents from across the country for fellowship and scholarly competition) is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.”
Written, directed, and co-produced by Wes Anderson, and based on a story by Anderson and Roman Coppola, Asteroid City marks a welcome return for the beloved director. The last we saw of Anderson was in 2021’s The French Dispatch, with the director known for such equally unique outings as Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zisso, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Isle of Dogs. Each outing demonstrates Anderson’s affinity for crafting movies that are unmistakably his thanks to his surreal outlook, and Asteroid City is already looking like another Wes Anderson classic in the filmmaker's cherished catalog.
Asteroid City Boasts One of the Most Star-Studded Casts of All Time
Wes Anderson has managed to amass one of the most star-studded cast lists of all time for Asteroid City. Led by Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Hanks, the rest of the cast includes — take a deep breath — Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, and Rupert Friend.
But that’s not all! Not by a long shot. As Asteroid City will also feature the likes of Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, Jeff Goldblum, Sophia Lillis, Fisher Stevens, Ethan Josh Lee, Grace Edwards, Aristou Meehan, Rita Wilson, and even British musician and Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker.
Wes Anderson is no stranger to working with large ensemble casts, the kind of which leave you feeling faint with stars in your eyes. But, with the cast of Asteroid City described as being "larger than most other Anderson films that are ensemble in nature,” only time will tell how exactly Anderson plans to include this vast swathe of talented actors. After all, recent films like Amsterdam and even Don't Look Up have proven that amazing casts don't always translate to success.
Asteroid City is set for a limited theatrical release on June 16 with a wider release scheduled for June 23 following the movie’s world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The project was recently given an R rating by the MPAA, something that Anderson is reportedly not happy about, with the director now appealing the decision.