Wes Anderson Wants To Make A Horror Movie
We all know what aWes Andersonmovie is. The co-writer/director behindMoonrise Kingdom,The Grand Budapest Hotel, andThe Royal Tenenbaumshas a distinct voice and style. Anderson is sometimes criticized for never leaving his wheelhouse, but, according to the director, he might venture far outside of his comfort zone with a horror movie.
Learn more after the jump.
After the success ofThe Grand Budapest HotelandMoonrise Kingdom, Anderson is at the top of his game. He’s at a point in his career where he can take great risks. In a conversation at the Rome Film Festival with authorDonna Tartt, Anderson revealed he may take his most promising risk yet by making a horror film (viaFilmmaker Magazine):
I have thought of doing a horror movie, and I have thought of doing a Christmas movie. Horror is an area where if a filmmaker really wants to use all the tricks, the techniques to affect your emotions…. With the kind of movies I do, you’re supposed to say is this part supposed to be funny, or is this part supposed to be sad? Well, you say, I don’t know. I’m not sure. This is the way we wanted it. When you make a horror or a thriller, you say you’re supposed to be scared here. You’re supposed to be relieved here. Here we’re explaining something so you know the next part so you’ll be more scared then. I like the idea of the requirements and the obligations of working in a genre like that. I’ve done some scenes like that, but I’d like to do a scary movie.
Making a horror movie requires a real awareness of timing and audience’s expectations. Tonally, Anderson could mash together different tones, as he’s done in the past, but seeing a straight-up horror movie from the director sounds more appealing. His sensibilities would certainly suit a Christmas movie, though, which, as he said, he’s also interested in making.
The good thing with a Christmas movie — if you make a great Christmas song or movie or book, as Dickens showed us, you can make a huge fortune, because they come back every year. As long as you have a piece of the action, then it’s a perennial.
Anderson is currently working ona stop-motionfilm about dogs, featuring the voices ofEdward Norton,Bryan Cranston,Bob Balaban, andJeff Goldblum. He doesn’t have anything lined up after that project, so maybe we’ll actually see a horror or christmas movie from him in the next few years.
Whatever kind of horror movie Anderson makes, it probably won’t resembleThe Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders.
