The French Dispatch UK release date, age rating, and parents guide

Wes Anderson gets back to live action with The French Dispatch UK release date rescheduled for autumn 2021 (details below) following the animation of Ilse Of Dogs back in 2018. You can find out everything you need to know about the film below, including the age rating, parents guide, story, cast and runtime, but give us a shout on Twitter if you think we missed anything out.

The film is essentially Anderson’s ode to the New Yorker magazine, and writers that are brave enough to write what they want to write. It seems like a pretty good concept to us, especially with the anthology-like treatment and the setting in a fictional French city during the mid 20th Century. The story is built around a magazine called The French Dispatch, which is run by editor and chief Arthur Howitzer Jr., played by long-time Anderson collaborator and general legend Bill Murray (Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Lost In Translation). It’s made up of three stories that follow the reporting of different articles for the magazine. 

The first centres on the 1968 student occupation protests in France with Frances McDormand as the Dispatch journalist covering the story. The second is about a notorious art dealer played by Adrian Brody, who tries to buy a piece from an incarcerated artist played by Benicio Del Toro. The third is about a kidnapping linked to the strange world of an extremely experimental chef and police lieutenant played by Stephen Park.

There’s a whole lot more than just that with mini arcs cutting through it all to create the kind of tapestry that Wes Anderson has become synonymous with. You can see in the trailer at the bottom of the page that the homage is also to French cinema, as much as it is to pioneering magazines, and with so much star talent and the cult following for Anderson’s work it could well be another big release for the director.

Cast

As is the norm for a Wes Anderson film the cast list is pretty incredible with Owen Wilson, Tilda Swindon, Edward Norton and Willem Defoe adding to Murray, McDormand, Brody, Del Toro and Park. There’s also a noticeable James Bond contingent with recent regulars Léa Seydoux and Jeffrey Wright featuring prominently after their efforts for No Time To Die. Quantum Of Solace git Mathieu Almaric is in the cast too and if that isn’t enough to form a significant link there’s Christoph Waltz, who plays Blofeld in both Spectre and No Time To Die.

The French Dispatch UK release date

The UK release date for The French Dispatch is scheduled for Friday the 22nd October 2021, following a lengthy delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was initially slated for summer 2020, but with the whole world in lockdown, it got moved out to allow audiences a chance to see it on the big screen. It’ll come out on the same date in the US too, so there shouldn’t be too many spoilers to avoid.

It’s competition on the big screen includes Venom 2 Let There Be Carnage, which releases a week earlier, along with Dune (2021) and Ron’s Gone Wrong, both out on the same weekend as the Wes Anderson film. With so many big films out around the same time, it’s doubtful that it will take the number 1 spot, but it should still do well at the box office.

You can follow us on Twitter to see more news and updates on upcoming films, and you can see more on the movie in the run up to the release with the official Twitter page at https://twitter.com/french_dispatch.

Age rating and parents guide

The French Dispatch UK age rating has now been confirmed by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) in the UK with the release date just around the typewriter. It has been certified 15, which is on the high side for Wes Anderson films, which range from PGs to 15s. That puts it on the same footing as The Grand Budapest Hotel, which also had a 15 age rating.

The parents guide notes include strong language and nudity and there are scenes in the trailer that hint at this if you want to check them out below. These are slightly different certification elements to The Grand Budapest Hotel, which advised sex references and brief gory images, along with the strong language.

We’ll update you with more details on the film, including the age rating and parents guide, as they’re confirmed. You can also check out our movie news section to see more on other upcoming films in 2020, or real more about the historical background to the film at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_French_Dispatch.

Trailer

The French Dispatch trailer is pretty nuts and sets things up for yet another left field flock from Wes Anderson. It’s chaotic, artistic, nuanced and fascinating and if the end release can see this through the it could well be up there with the director’s biggest films.

Runtime

The film will be relatively short, clocking in at 1 hour 42 minutes, which is the norm for the quirky director.