‘Asteroid City’: Everything we know about Wes Anderson’s new UFO film starring Tom Hanks
Wes Anderson’s quirky cinematic universe is expanding with Asteroid City. The American director’s new film will arrive in cinemas this summer, with an all-star cast led by Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie and Scarlett Johansson.
It is Anderson’s first film since 2021’s The French Dispatch – an ode to journalism set in 1970s France – and the 11th of his illustrious career so far. The director has kept busy since then, working on both Asteroid City and a Netflix adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.
Asteroid City is a romantic comedy-drama described as a “poetic meditation on the meaning of life.” Set in a tiny American desert town in the 1950s, the film tells the story of a space convention that is “spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events,” according to the mysterious official synopsis. The upcoming flick was also filmed in the Spanish town of Chinchón, near Madrid.
The trailer, which was released yesterday, gives a bit more information away. We learn that the lead character is a widowed dad-of-four (played by Jason Schwartzman) who gets stranded in the town and grows close to a famous actress (Scarlett Johansson).
But the apparent arrival of a UFO puts the town on lockdown, halting the convention and throwing the characters’ lives into chaos. “I don’t like the way that guy looked at us, the alien,” says Schwartzman’s character. “Like we’re doomed.”
The film features Anderson’s most star-studded cast of his career so far, with Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Scarlett Johansson and Steve Carrell leading the line-up of A-listers. Other familiar faces include Stranger Things’ Maya Hawke, Sleepless in Seattle‘s Rita Wilson, and Hong Chau, fresh from her Oscar-nominated role in The Whale.
Many of the director’s past collaborators are back for Asteroid City, including Jason Schwartzman, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody and Jeff Goldblum.
Anderson co-wrote the story with Roman Coppola, who also worked on The French Dispatch, Isle of Dogs, Moonrise Kingdom and The Darjeeling Limited.
Asteroid City is due to be released in the UK and Ireland on 23 June, after premiering at the Cannes Film Festival.
