RW402 - Wes Anderson Rewatch - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

 

In this episode of The Wes ANDERSON Rewatch, Cory and Nathan take a deep dive into "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou."

Trailer:

Our Favourite Trivia:

At $50 million, this was Wes Anderson's biggest-budgeted movie which failed to make money, earning back only $34.8 million worldwide.

Though the characters were inspired by such American novels as The Great Gatsby and The Magnificent Ambersons, the plot has been compared to Moby-Dick

The movie is dedicated to Jacques-Yves Cousteau, whose son Philippe Cousteau, Sr. died in a seaplane crash. In the movie, Ned who (most supposedly) is Steve's son, dies after a sea helicopter crash.

Cousteau's ship was the "Calypso". Zissou's ship is called the "Belafonte"; Harry Belafonte became famous singing calypso songs. In the beginning sequence, when Zissou (Bill Murray) is first introduced to the Italian audience, the model of the "Belafonte" on his desk is actually a model of the "Calypso", painted blue instead of black.

The cross section of the Belafonte, in which we see all of the interior rooms and the people within it, was one hundred forty feet long and forty feet high.

Wes Anderson's first movie co-written with Noah Baumbach. Anderson's usual writing partner was Owen Wilson, but he was becoming more popular as an actor, and was unavailable.

Co-writers Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson named several of the places and crew members in this movie spontaneously after things and people they saw around them at the Italian restaurant where they held many of their meetings about the movie. Pescespada Island, for instance, was named for one of the dishes on the menu. Some of the characters' names were named after waiters and patrons at the restaurant.

Gwyneth Paltrow was originally set to play Jane Winslett-Richardson, but couldn't because of schedule conflicts. Nicole Kidman expressed interest and Wes Anderson hired her. Kidman was forced to bow out due to other commitments, and Julianne Moore requested the role. However, it eventually went to Cate Blanchett. Anderson admitted the character's name was inspired by Kate Winslet.

Cate Blanchett never rehearsed with the crew and hadn't even met most of them before filming the nighttime electric jellyfish scene in which she first appears in the movie to add spontaneity to the scene.

When he learned of Cate Blanchett's real-life pregnancy, co-writer and director Wes Anderson jokingly accused her of taking method acting too far.

Seu Jorge translated the David Bowie songs into Portuguese and arranged them for guitar himself.

The original script called for the pirates to be Indonesians, but since there wasn't enough of an Indonesian population in Italy where the movie was shot, it was changed to Filipinos.

Wes Anderson has stated the walking sequence in the final credits is an homage to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984), also featuring Jeff Goldblum.

The DVD commentary was recorded in the same New York City diner where Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach wrote this movie.

What's Up Next?

Next week we discuss "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou."

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