Oscar Profile #508: Wes Anderson

Born May 1, 1969 in Houston, Texas, Wes(ley) Wales Anderson was the middle of three children of archeologist turned real estate agent Ann (née Burroughs) and Melver Leonard Anderson, who worked in advertising. Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burroughs was his great-grandfather. His grandfather was Burroughs’ illustrator. It’s no wonder the young Anderson began writing plays and making 8-mm films as a child.

The future Oscar-nominated writer-director worked part-time as a theatre projectionist while attending the University of Texas at Austin, where he met future collaborator Owen Wilson. He graduated in 1990 with a degree in philosophy. His first film was 1996’s Bottle Rocket, based on a short film of the same name he had made with Luke and Owen Wilson. His second film was 1998’s Rushmore starring Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman. Murray, Schwartzman, and Schwartzman’s cousin Roman Coppola, would along with the Wilson brothers, continue to be collaborators throughout his career.

Anderson and Wilson collaborated on the screenplay for his third film, 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums for which they received an Oscar nomination. It would be the first of seven to date for Anderson, the first and only for Wilson. The cast included Bill Murray and both Wilson brothers, but it was Gene Hackman and Anjelica Huston who received the brunt of the film’s notices, leading to a Golden Globe win for Hackman as Best Actor – Comedy or Musical.

Anderson’s fourth film was 2004’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou with Murray, Huston and Owen Wilson, as well as Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe and Jeff Goldblum. Murray was nominated for a Satellite award for Best Actor – Comedy or Musical, and Blanchett received numerous critics’ awards for her performance is conjunction with her Oscar winning turn as Katharine Hepburn in the same year’s The Aviator. His fifth film was 2007’s The Darjeeling Limited starring Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman, the latter co-writing the screenplay with Anderson.

2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, co-written by Anderson and Schwartzman, earned Anderson his second Oscar nomination, his first for Best Animated Feature. Five years later, he and Roman Coppola were Oscar nominated for their screenplay for his next film, Moonrise Kingdom, which featured Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Lucas Hedges, along with Murray and Schwartzman.

Anderson’s eighth film, 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, was his most lauded to date, winning four Oscars out of nine nominations, with Anderson himself receiving three nominations for Best Picture, Director and Original Screenplay, the latter shared with Hugo Guinness. The cast led by Ralph Fiennes featured a who’s who of supporting players including veterans of all of Anderson’s previous films.

In 2016, Anderson’s partner, Juman Malouf gave birth to daughter Freya, named after Margaret Sullavan’s character in 1940’s The Mortal Storm.

Anderson’s ninth film, like his sixth, was an animated feature, 2018’s Isle of Dogs, for which he was again nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. The next film for the 51-year-old legend is The French Dispatch which has been completed and is awaiting a release date.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (2001)

As dysfunctional screen families go, few have ever been more mixed up than the one Anderson’s Oscar nominated screenplay presents here. Gene Hackman is the wealthy patriarch who returns to the family home to win back his estranged wife (Anjelica Huston) who has been proposed to by another man (Danny Glover). His three grown children (Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson) have moved back into the family home with Stiller mourning the death of his wife in a plane crash six months earlier, Paltrow suffering from writer’s block, and Wilson in a funk after his tennis career came to a halt. Bill Murray is Paltrow’s much older husband.

FANTASTIC MR. FOX (2009)

Anderson and Noah Baumbach based their screenplay on the novel by Roald Dahl (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Witches). George Clooney voiced the title role with Meryl Streep voicing Mrs. Fox, with Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe and Anderson himself voicing other characters in this tale of a fox known for stealing things who must lead his family to safety from the machinations of three farmers (voiced by Robin Hurlstone, Hugo Guinness and the formerly mentioned Michael Gambon). Anderson received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.

MOONRISE KINGDOM (2012)

One of Anderson’s most ambitious films, it centers on the romance of a pair of runaway 12-year-olds (Kara Hayward, Jared Gilman) who have fled their small New England town. The two hold their own against an impressive cast that includes Bill Murray and Frances McDormand as the girl’s parents, Edward Norton as the boy’s scout leader, Bruce Willis as the local sheriff, Tilda Swinton as a social worker, as well as Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban, Lucas Hedges, Larry Pine, Harvey Keitel and Anderson’s brother Eric. Anderson received his second Oscar nomination for Original Screenplay, his third overall.

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (2014)

Anderson’s film about a storied hotel in a mythical East-European country was a meticulously crafted, sumptuous feast for the eyes and ears. It garnered nine Oscar nominations and won four. Among the eight it failed to win were three for Anderson for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay. Its cast included four Oscar winners: Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton and F. Murray Abraham; and twelve Oscar nominees: Bill Murray, Jude Law, Jeff Goldblum, Edward Norton, Owen Wilson, Harvey Keitel, Bob Balaban, Tom Wilkinson, Willem Dafoe, Ralph Fiennes, Lucas Hedges, and Saoirse Ronan.

ISLE OF DOGS (2018)

Anderson received his second Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, his seventh overall, for this imaginative tale of young Japanese boy in search of his lost dog on a island of trash where his mayor has sent his city’s dogs due to an outbreak of dog flu. This was another film top heavy with Oscar winners and nominees. Its voice cast included four winners: F. Murray Abraham, Tilda Swinton, Fisher Stevens, and Frances McDormand; and eight nominees: Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Bryan Cranston, Greta Gerwig, Scarlett Johansson, Roman Coppola, and Bob Balaban.