Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series, which highlights the year’s most talked about screenplays, continues Asteroid cityWes Anderson’s latest film, which had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this year.
Anderson co-wrote the screenplay with frequent collaborator Roman Coppola, after the two had previously collaborated on the Anderson-directed film The Darjeeling Limited, Isle of Dogs, French sent And Moonrise Kingdom, The latter earned the pair an Oscar nomination for original screenplay in 2023.
Set in 1955, the story revolves around the southwestern American desert town of Asteroid City (population 87), whose famous attraction is a large meteor crater and observatory. The town with a phone booth plays host to the military and astronomers, who award five Junior Stargazers with prizes for their scientific inventions. It is also the weekend of Asteroid Day, commemorating September 27, 3007 BC. Remember when the Dry Plains meteorite hit.
It’s also the weekend when a stranger shows up, causing the city to go into lockdown and the military to try to cover up the story. But the Junior Stargazers have a plan to get the word out.
Anyway, that’s the plot of the story behind the real story Asteroid city is a play in pre-production in New York in which the actors’ lives take place at the same time as the action in the desert. Somehow right in the middle lies the dissection of the big and the small, with points of reference ranging from Sam Shepard and the Cold War to Elia Kazan and the theater to the American West.
Anderson regular Jason Schwartzman (he plays a recently widowed, grieving father of three war photographers; Anderson said the role was written specifically for him), Scarlett Johansson, Jeffery Wright, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Tony Revolori, Liev Schreiber, Adrien Brody and Bryan Cranston stars with Tom Hanks, Steve Carell, Hong Chau, Maya Hawke, Rupert Friend and Stephen Park.
The film was released in US theaters in June via Focus Features and grossed $53.8 million worldwide.
Click below to read the script:
Source: Deadline
Ashley Root is an author and celebrity journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a keen eye for all things celebrity, Ashley is always up-to-date on the latest gossip and trends in the world of entertainment.
