The trailer has been released for The Phoenician Scheme. The movie is the latest feature film from auteur director Wes Anderson, whose most recent work was 2023’s Asteroid City. The movie a spy story about a troubled father-daughter relationship within a family business. The Phoenician Scheme features a star-studded leading cast, including Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Bryan Cranston, Benicio Del Toro, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ethan Hawke, Michael Cera, Richard Ayoade, Rupert Friend, Jeffrey Wright, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Mathieu Amalric, Mia Threaplton, and Riz Ahmed. The film is set for release on May 30.
Now, Focus Features has revealed a trailer for The Phoenician Scheme. The trailer begins by introducing businessman Zsa-zsa Korda (Del Toro). He has ten children, including one daughter, a nun named Liesl (Threaplton). Liesl is appointed the only heir to Korda’s extensive estate. Korda will not tell his daughter why he is making this decision, and the pair’s fractured relationship is revealed throughout the trailer. Throughout the trailer, Korda and his ᴀssociates travel through the jungle, desert, and more.
What This Means For The Phoenician Scheme
The Cast Is Stacked With Stars
As is the case with the majority of Anderson’s work, The Phoenician Scheme is packed with stars. Major talents such as Cera do not even come into play until later in the trailer. Hanks and Cranston play basketball against each other, and Korda and his daughter meet up with Johansson’s character in the desert. Even as the leads travel through different terrain, the jam-packed casting will make it such that nearly every frame of the film will feature a major star.
The Phoenician Scheme trailer also reveals the scale of the film. By the looks of the elaborate set and how many locations they are going to, it looks like this movie will be Anderson’s biggest film since The Grand Budapest H๏τel in 2014. That film was very well-received, scoring multiple Oscar nominations. If The Phoenician Scheme is to come anywhere close to matching The Grand Budapest H๏τel‘s prowess, it will likely be a great movie.
Our Take On The Phoenician Scheme Trailer
The Trailer Has Elements Of Multiple Great Anderson Films
As a big fan of Anderson’s filmography, I am optimistic about The Phoenician Scheme after seeing this trailer. While it can sometimes be frustrating in his films to see stars such as Murray for just a few minutes, this one is so jam-packed that it seems like the actors’ short-lived screen time could lead to whimsy. Character-wise, it seems to have threads of the parent-child relationship dynamics of fantastic Anderson films such as Moonrise Kingdom or The Royal Tenenbaums. Combined with the energetic adventuring of The Grand Budapest H๏τel, this could just be among his best films yet.
Source: Focus Features
