The first trailer for Wes Anderson’s 10th feature, “The French Dispatch,” reveals that the film is about a fictional American magazine in a French city, but it’s inspired by and loaded with references to the history of The New Yorker magazine.
Bill Murray plays the editor of the magazine The French Dispatch, Arthur Howitzer, Jr., a character inspired by The New Yorker’s founding editor Harold Ross. He leads a gigantic cast that also includes Jeffrey Wright, playing a version of James Baldwin mixed with A.J. Liebling, Adrien Brody, as an art dealer modeled on Lord Duveen and Owen Wilson as a writer inspired by Joseph Mitchell.
Benicio del Toro, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Mathieu Amalric and Stephen Park round out the principal cast. But the film also features appearances by (deep breath) Liev Schreiber, Elisabeth Moss, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Lois Smith, Saoirse Ronan, Christoph Waltz, Cécile de France, Guillaume Gallienne, Jason Schwartzman, Tony Revolori, Rupert Friend, Henry Winkler, Bob Balaban, Hippolyte Girardot and Angelica Huston.
“The French Dispatch,” or the full title “The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun,” brings to life a collection of stories from the final issue of an American magazine published in a fictional, 20th-century French city. Anderson wrote and directed the film from a story he developed with Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Hugo Guinness.
Anderson, Steven Rales and Jeremy Dawson are serving as producers while Searchlight Pictures will distribute the film produced and co-financed by Indian Paintbrush.
“The French Dispatch” opens in theaters on July 24, 2020. Check out the full trailer above.