GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Gets A Distributor And A Synopsis

Fox Searchlight will be the distributor for Wes Anderson's upcoming Grand Budapest Hotel. The company also put out Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Darjeeling Limited, so they know what they're getting into. It appears they are still trying to decide whether to put it out late this year or early 2014, the deciding factor probably settling on how many top ten lists it's likely to conquer at the end of each particular year. So far, nasty 2013 looks like the clear winner, but we have a long way to go yet.

With this news comes a nice plot synopsis that describes a Wes Anderson movie unlike any other so far:

The Grand Budapest Hotel tells of a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars and his friendship with a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé.

The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting, the battle for an enormous family fortune and the slow and then sudden upheavals that transformed Europe during the first half of the 20th century.

It's that last sentence that really gets me. Political/historical recreation does not seem to be within the Wes Anderson wheelhouse, but neither does oceanography or gunplay and The Life Aquatic is my second favorite of his films.

Wes Anderson couldn't be higher in my estimation at the moment thanks to last year's amazing Moonrise Kingdom. This one appears may have a far more ambitious story than we're used to from him, but it certainly has a cast that can deliver the goods. I'm not even going to go through all the names. Just know that the list is long and every name on it is boner-worthy. Except maybe for Adrien Brody. You just never know with that guy.