Bill Murray is the editor of a literary magazine — and lord of chaos — in the new trailer for Wes Anderson ’s The French Dispatch, out July 24th.
Set in Ennui-sur-Blasé, a fictional city in France, the clip opens with Tilda Swinton’s narration as she explains the genesis of the Dispatch: “A factual weekly report on the subjects of politics, the arts — high and low — and diverse stories of human interest.”
“You don’t think it’s too seedy this time?” Murray’s Arthur Howitzer Jr. asks Owen Wilson’s character, Sazerac, as the latter fixes a bike in the newsroom. Which story he’s referring to, we don’t know.
Wilson responds, “I think it’s charming!”
The trailer then cycles through various stories that the Dispatch is working on: an eccentric artist (Benicio del Toro) and his in-demand works, the May ’68 occupations and one of its student protestors (Timothée Chalamet), and then a kidnapping scheme that seems to involve a chef.
The film also features Chalamet’s usual co-star Saoirse Ronan, as well as Jeffrey Wright and Elisabeth Moss. Beloved actors from Anderson’s previous films can also be seen throughout — Swinton, McDormand, Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Bob Balaban, Anjelica Huston and so on.
The film was inspired by Anderson’s love of The New Yorker and Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Murray) was inspired by the literary magazine’s co-founder, Harold Ross.