Stars step out for the premiere of Wes Anderson’s ‘Asteroid City’

CANNES (Reuters) – A busload of celebrities poured down the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday night for the premiere of director Wes Anderson’s new space tale “Asteroid City.”

As with his previous films, Anderson’s cast is Hollywood stars, including Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, Adrien Brody and Margot Robbie.

Notably absent is Bill Murray, who has been in nearly all of Anderson’s films but missed this one due to falling ill from COVID-19 during filming.

Anderson told reporters Wednesday that making “Asteroid City,” which features a quarantine scene, while pandemic protocols were in place, worked out well for the cast and crew.

“Our set was enormous — it was a desert. But it was an enclosed desert that was just there for this small group of people and a camera in the middle of it somewhere to show these fantasy scenes, so I don’t want to say it was good for the movie but we used it in a way that wasn’t bad.”

The film received a six-minute standing ovation after its world premiere at the sumptuous Grand Theater Lumiere.

“Asteroid City” is the name of the fictional town in the southwestern United States where the film takes place in the 1950s. Famous for its meteor crater and observatory, the town is hosting a conference for young scientists when a mysterious object disrupts the festivities and upends the lives of those present.

Schwartzman plays Augie Stenbeck, a war photographer grieving the death of his wife, whose car breaks down in the city with his three daughters and a son. His love interest is popular actor Midge Campbell, played by Johansson, who is in town for the convention with her daughter.

This main story line is wrapped up in a complex framing device in which it is in fact a stage play, and the process of setting this stage play is the focus of a black and white TV show with an unnamed host played by Cranston.

“It’s Wes’s love letter to performance art, and he’s wrapped his arms around the three major mediums we’re involved in,” Cranston told reporters Wednesday.

Johansson, who previously worked with Anderson on the animated film “Isle of Dogs,” said the way “Asteroid City” was shot, with a real set, felt similar to stage work.

Superhero films like Black Widow are heavy on CGI, said Johansson, who previously worked on Marvel superhero films.

Asteroid City is the third time that the director, known for his unique visual style, has competed for the festival’s first prize. His latest entry is 2021’s “The French Dispatch”.

Anderson collaborated to write “Asteroid City” with Roman Coppola, with whom he has collaborated in the past on films such as Moonrise Kingdom and the Oscar-nominated Isle of Dogs.

The film received mixed reviews, with critics praising its visual detail and style, but taking away points for being light on emotional content.

Britain’s The Guardian gave it four out of five stars while Variety wrote it “sounds smashing, but as a film it’s only for die-hard Andersons, maybe not many of them.”

(Reporting by Miranda Murray; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.