{"id":8063,"date":"2025-05-31T03:58:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T03:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/31\/wes-anderson-explains-the-genesis-of-the-phoenician-scheme\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T03:58:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T03:58:23","slug":"wes-anderson-explains-the-genesis-of-the-phoenician-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/31\/wes-anderson-explains-the-genesis-of-the-phoenician-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Wes Anderson Explains the Genesis of \u2018The Phoenician Scheme\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mathieu Amalric, Wes Anderson, Mia Threapleton and Benicio Del Toro on the set of The Phoenician Scheme.<\/em> Roger Do Minh\/Courtesy of TPS Productions\/Focus Features<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Cannes Film Festival has a way of inspiring its attendees. Just take it from acclaimed auteur Wes Anderson<\/a>, returning to the Riviera for his fourth time with <\/span>The Phoenician Scheme<\/span><\/i>. \u201cWhen we were here four years ago with <\/span>The French Dispatch<\/span><\/i>,\u201d said Anderson during last week\u2019s press conference, \u201cI said to Benicio, \u2018Something\u2019s going to be coming your way. I hope you\u2019ll be interested in this.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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At the time, Anderson only had an image of the film\u2019s lead, Benicio Del Toro<\/a>, dressed as shady industrialist Anatole \u201cZsa-Zsa\u201d Korda. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what was going to happen,\u201d continued Anderson. \u201cI just knew this character, and he was moving relentlessly through the story. And you can\u2019t kill him.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Del Toro, who had only ever worked with Anderson on the episodic multi-character ensemble <\/span>French Dispatch<\/span><\/i>, sparked to the idea, especially since Anderson wanted to collaborate with him at such an early stage while developing the script with longtime writing partner Roman Coppola<\/a>. \u201cI get to channel the kid in me to really explode,\u201d del Toro explained. \u201cAnd that\u2019s unique as an actor.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda, Michael Cera as Bjorn and Mia Threapleton as Liesl in The Phoenician Scheme. Courtesy of TPS Productions\/Focus Features<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBenicio was part of forming it with me,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cThis character has a ruthlessness and a brutality. But the layers are in Benicio, and that informed the story when Roman and I were writing it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike his previous film, the meta-textual quasi-sci-fi <\/span>Asteroid City<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u2014heavily self-reflexive, slower-paced and tinged with ennui\u2014<\/span>The Phoenician Scheme<\/span><\/i> plays like a propulsive thriller, opening with the comically determined Korda surviving another plane crash (his sixth), yet again having evaded the assassins constantly trying to kill him. \u201cI\u2019m in the habit of surviving,\u201d says the tenacious tycoon, famously known as Mister 5% for taking a lucrative cut of every business deal he touches.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the near-death experience makes him reconsider his life just enough to summon his estranged daughter-turned-nun Liesl (Mia Threapleton<\/a>) from her convent for an important family meeting at Palazzo Korda. His plan: make Liesl the sole heir to his estate, and immediately assign her to be manager of his business affairs\u2014specifically the Korda Land and Sea Phoenician Infrastructure Scheme. And so Korda insists on taking her through each of his projected ventures and uncommitted business partners across Phoenicia, involving railway magnates, shipping vessels, dams, tunnels, and more than a few exploited laborers pilfering natural resources.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were writing something that we intended to be very dark,\u201d said Anderson, \u201ca character who\u2019s not concerned about how his decisions are affecting populations of workforces and landscapes. The darkness of a certain type of capitalist. But it took us somewhere else.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Wes Anderson on the set of The Phoenician Scheme.<\/em> Roger Do Minh\/TPS Productions\/Focus Features<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That new direction was all due to the good-hearted Liesl, who turned this tale into a Wes Anderson staple: the family drama. \u201cI have a daughter, Roman has a daughter, Benicio has a daughter,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cIf we didn\u2019t, then Zsa Zsa probably wouldn\u2019t have.\u201d In Anderson\u2019s telling, the real gambit in the Phoenician Scheme is Korda\u2019s reconciliation with the resistant Liesl. \u201cThis whole business venture, without him knowing it, is just a way for him to get back his daughter,\u201d Anderson explained. \u201cHe\u2019s created this vast ritual that they go through; and by the end, it\u2019s less and less the thing he wants.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Korda harkens back to classic Anderson antiheroes like Royal Tenenbaum in sharing a megalomaniacal outlook on life, an amoral pursuit of winning at any cost, and a slippery identity protected by money. \u201cI don\u2019t live anywhere,\u201d Korda says to Liesl at one point. \u201cI\u2019m not a citizen at all. I don\u2019t need human rights.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The larger-than-life rogue, charmingly dangerous and willfully dismissive of life\u2019s rules, was inspired by Anderson\u2019s late father-in-law, a businessman and engineer named Fouad Malouf (to whom the film is dedicated). \u201cHe was a very warm, wise person. He was very <\/span>alpha<\/span><\/i>. Maybe a little scary at first. <\/span>Strong<\/span><\/i>. The first conversation I ever had with him, I asked him what the men who worked with him were like. And he told me, \u2018All lions. I only work with lions.\u2019 <\/span>He<\/span><\/i> was a lion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Anderson surrounds del Toro not only with Liesl, but also with her tutor, Norwegian entomologist Bj\u00f8rn Lund (Michael Cera<\/a>). For both Threapleton and Cera, <\/span>The Phoenician Scheme<\/span><\/i> is their first time working with Anderson. \u201cI\u2019ve been a huge fan forever,\u201d Cera told\u00a0Observer <\/em>during a conversation after the press conference. \u201cI saw <\/span>The Royal Tenenbaums<\/span><\/i> in the theater when I was, like 11, and loved it. <\/span>The Life Aquatic, Bottle Rocket<\/span><\/i>. I watched <\/span>Rushmore<\/span><\/i> 8000 times. It was just one of the most important movies to me, and one that helped me find my tastes.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n