Could we be getting Wes Anderson‘s take on “Meet Me in St. Louis” sometime soon?
The auteur told Sight and Sound that the iconic 1944 Vincente Minnelli film is his “favorite musical ever made,” just in time for the 80th anniversary of the holiday-centric feature. Judy Garland, who was married to Minnelli at the time, stars as the eldest daughter of the Smith family, who are celebrating their last Christmas in their hometown. Margaret O’Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Tom Drake, and Marjorie Main rounded out the cast.
“It must have been a magnificently nostalgic experience to see ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’ back in 1944,” Anderson said of the musical film. “Now it’s magnificently exotic. Maybe the America it evokes only ever quite existed on the backlot of MGM, but, for myself, the characters and world of this movie come to life like they’re living next door across a little strip of lawn, snow-covered in the winter. All their minor/modest hopes and troubles feel crucial and captivating – and they sing! My favorite musical ever made.”
Anderson previously told The Hollywood Reporter that he has his eye on adapting a Charles Dickens story. The “A Christmas Carol” and “Oliver Twist” author has a bevy of novels that Anderson could select from.
“I feel like the writer who I would like to adapt — who I don’t know if I can see the opportunity — is Dickens,” Anderson said. “I would like to do a big Dickens story. They’ve all been adapted. They’ve all been done many times. They’re so interesting. People keep going back to them. They’re so entertaining and so complex.”
Meanwhile, Anderson has wrapped his latest original feature, “The Phoenician Scheme,” which stars Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Willem Dafoe, Scarlett Johannson, Bill Murray, Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Rupert Friend, Benicio del Toro, and more. Benedict Cumberbatch leads the action adventure film as an archaeologist who is involved in uncovering an ancient conspiracy with dangerous global implications. Bruno Delbonnel is the cinematographer on “The Phoenician Scheme,” marking the first live-action movie directed by Anderson that will not be DP’ed by frequent collaborator Robert Yeoman.
The film is expected to premiere at Berlinale 2025.
