RW410 - Wes Anderson Rewatch - Moonrise Kingdom

 

In this episode of The Wes ANDERSON Rewatch, Cory and Nathan have run to their own hideaway to discuss "Moonrise Kingdom."

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Director Wes Anderson had long been interested in depicting a romance between children. He described the starting idea for the story as a memory of fantasized young love. “I remember this feeling, from when I was that age and from when I was in fifth grade, but nothing really happened. I just experienced the period of dreaming about what might happen, when I was at that age. I feel like the movie could really be something that was envisioned by one of these characters.”

When he was 12, Anderson lived in Texas with two brothers. His parents were separating, and influenced his later depictions of crumbling marriages. He was briefly a Scout, and had acted in a play about Noah's Ark. A childhood incident inspired the scene where Suzy reveals her parents' book Coping with the Very Troubled Child. He found a similarly titled book belonging to his father and remarked, "I immediately knew who that troubled child was."[

After working on the screenplay for a year, Anderson said he had completed 15 pages and appealed to his The Darjeeling Limited collaborator Roman Coppola for help; they finished in one month. Coppola drew on memories of his mother Eleanor in giving Mrs. Bishop a bullhorn to communicate inside the house. Anderson described the 1965 setting as randomly chosen, but added it fit the subject of the Scouts and the feel of a "Norman Rockwell-type of Americana". While preparing the script Anderson also viewed films about young love for inspiration, including Black Jack, Small Change, A Little Romance and Melody. François Truffaut's 1959 French film The 400 Blows about juvenile delinquency was also an influence.

After his 2009 film Fantastic Mr. Fox underperformed, Anderson said he had to pitch Moonrise Kingdom with a smaller budget than he would have otherwise requested. The budget was US$16 million, and his producers Steven Rales, and Scott Rudin agreed to back the project.

The crew scheduled a substantial amount of time for casting the Sam and Suzy characters. Anderson expressed apprehension about the process saying, "there's no movie, if we don't find the perfect kids". The auditions took eight months at different schools. Anderson chose Jared Gilman, finding him "immediately funny" thanks to his glasses and long hair, and for his voice and personality at the audition. Kara Hayward was cast because she read from the screenplay and spoke naturally as if it was real life.

The dance scene on the beach was saved for the very end of filming, so that the two young leads would be comfortable around each other, and was done on a closed set (just the two leads, co-writer and director Wes Anderson, and the cameraman).

This is the first Wes Anderson film without any involvement from Owen Wilson.

What's Up Next?

Next week we discuss "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

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