Wes Anderson’s latest movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel, has just been graced by the release of the movie trailer and the announcement of the cinematic release date, but will it live up to the left-field genius of Moonrise Kingdom and Fantastic Mr. Fox? From the first few run throughs of the trailer it look like it’s set to be another surreal trip into the comic abstraction of the director, producer and writer’s imagination, and with the likes of Ralph Fiennes, Willem Defoe and Bill Murray all confirmed on the massively impressive cast list it could be another winner.
The film tells the story of an unlikely friendship that develops between the concierge of The Grand Budapest Hotel, Gustav H, played by Ralph Fiennes (Skyfall), and the young lobby boy, Zero Moustafa, played by relative newcomer Tony Revolori. As Zero becomes his most trusted friend and pupil, Gustav H. gets the two of them embroiled in an array of wild occurrences, including the murder of Madam D and the rather sticky business of her last will and testament, as well as what looks like a pretty fraught series of runaway sequences.
Willem Dafoe is to play a knuckle-duster totting character called Jopling who appears to work for the supposed real heir to the D fortune, Dmitri, played by Adrien Brody. Madame D is played in both life and death by Tilda Swinton (Limits of Control), and Bill Murray (Moonrise Kingdom) is Gustav H’s friend, M. Ivan.
The cast also includes Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park), Jude Law (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus), Léa Seydoux (Midnight in Paris), Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) and Owen Wilson (Midnight in Paris, The Internship), as well as previous Wes Anderson film actors Harvey Keitel, Edward Norton and Jason Schwartzman.
As with Moonrise Kingdom and Fantastic Mr. Fox, music for The Grand Budapest Hotel has been scored by Alexandre Desplat, so it should be epic. From what little is included in the trailer the music sounds like a mix of comedy, classical and romantic beauty.
The film is set for a UK release date of the 28th February 2014 with a later release of the 7th March 2014 according to IMDb, so it’s something to look forward to as we start to thaw out from the cold, despite it’s wintery setting. Set throughout Europe during the interwar period, it’s a crazy adventure for the new friends as Zero tries to learn from his wayward new life counselor, Gustav H.
