That changes with the long-awaited Friday 22 October 2021 arrival of his new film set in Fifties Paris and the punsomely fictional region of Ennui-sur-Blasé A combination of his trademark technicolour pastel and black-and-white sequences it’s based around the French outpost of a New Yorker-like American magazine edited by Bill Murray’s Arthur Howitzer Jr with a raft of other Anderson repertoire players (Owen Wilson Willem Dafoe) and a sprinkling of new stars including the ubiquitous Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan AngoulemeGetty ImagesTo film this enticing confection the team headed to the west of France and Angoulême – small and relatively obscure but not such a surprising choice for a graphic-arts fan like Anderson the town is a national centre for animation and video games It also offers a fine selection of winding streets with the ambience of a Nouvelle Vague classic ‘We really looked hard for a town that could be a Parisian quartier like Ménilmontant Belleville or Montmartre,’ Anderson told local paper Charente Libre in a rare interview The Old Town with its staircases and bridge and different levels is really well preserved Saint-pierreGetty ImagesAnderson spent six months on site and used 900 locals as extras the team was based at the disused Cofpa felt factory at nearby Gond-Pontouvre A sequence of riot police lined up on an overhead bridge was on rue du Sauvage; rue de Bélat became the site of an old-school newspaper kiosk; and the square in front of Cathédrale Saint-Pierre was transformed with the use of fake façades and scaffolding into the home of The French Dispatch office was a prison in which to place Benicio Del Toro’s Moses Rosenthaler – which they found in nearby Ruelle And while Anderson expressed a fondness for local landmark Hôtel de Bardines it seems Bill Murray was the town’s biggest fan ‘He only had to come once,’ the director told Charente Libre The second time he stayed a week for a single day’s shooting.’ OTHER WES ANDERSON FILMS:THE OTHER FILMS: RUSHMOREAlamyRUSHMOREIt’s all a long way from Anderson and Murray’s first collaboration, on Rushmore (1998). This, the director’s second movie, was filmed in his hometown of Houston, Texas the first school attended by the precocious Max (Jason Schwartzman) St John’s on Claremont Lane (the private Rushmore Academy) while Murray’s Herman Blume stays at the Warwick Hotel on Main Street in the Museum District THE ROYAL TENENBAUMSAlamyTHE ROYAL TENENBAUMSFor 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums, the team headed to New York while a series of city landmarks play host to the characters including the Waldorf Astoria to Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) and Central Park Zoo and the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hill to Richie’s (Luke Wilson) tennis match Moonrise Kingdom (2012) took on another great American region using Rhode Island for its fictional New England town of New Penzance The Summer’s End lighthouse is at the northern end of Conanicut Island are back on the mainland: Camp Ivanhoe is really Bayfield Farm in South Kingstown run by the fearsome Commander Pierce (Harvey Keitel) THE LIFE AQUATICAlamyTHE LIFE AQUATICAnderson’s first foray abroad came with 2004’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which replicated the ocean travels of its Jacques Cousteau-alike around the coast of Italy. Much of the movie was filmed in the famed Cinecittà studios in Rome with location shoots mostly taking place within short distances a medieval tower on the coast next to Anzio naturally) goes to find his wife Eleanor (Anjelica Huston) THE DARJEELING LIMITEDAlamyTHE DARJEELING LIMITEDThough The Life Aquatic was a nightmare to make (and a commercial flop), the director continued his travels with his next picture, 2007’s The Darjeeling Limited. Set aboard a moving train in India the film takes us through the deserts of Rajasthan with views of Jodhpur as well as smaller settlements: we see the railway station at Zawar THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTELAlamyTHE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTELClosest to the world of The French Dispatch is Anderson’s most recent live-action film, 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. Set in the imaginary Eastern European land of Zubrowka, it was filmed in Germany though the set-bound exterior of the titular hotel was consciously modelled on the Grandhotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary also used as the Hotel Splendide in 2006 Bond flick Casino Royale Anderson took over the Görlitzer Warenhaus a disused Art Nouveau department store in the town of Görlitz close to the Polish border – a town with an impressive screen CV taking in the Nazi film-within-a-film of Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009) The Reader (2008) and The Book Thief (2013) It also provided the hotel restaurant in the shape of its 1910 city hall For the castle home of Madame Desgoffe-und-Taxis (Tilda Swinton) Anderson moved to Schloss Hainewalde (the exterior) and Schloss Waldenburg (interiors) while M Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) is imprisoned in another castle the Renaissance-built Osterstein in Zwickau back in Görlitz but its interior is in nearby Dresden officially The World’s Most Beautiful Milk Shop is decorated throughout with handpainted Villeroy & Boch tiles and appears just as in the film – pure Wes Anderson whimsy in actual real life The French Dispatch is released in UK and US cinemas on Friday 22 October 2021 Where was 'The Irishman' filmed? Where was 'The Irishman' filmed?Gallery14 SlidesBy James MeddView SlideshowWhere was the Oscar-winning film 'Parasite' filmed? Where was the Oscar-winning film 'Parasite' filmed?Gallery11 SlidesBy James MeddView SlideshowWhere was '1917' filmed? fans are eagerly waiting for the theatrical release of The French Dispatch The French Dispatch is a “love letter to journalists” which follows multiple narrative threads revolving around the French branch of a Kansas newspaper The stellar cast features the likes of Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray and Timothée Chalamet The French Dispatch received a nine-minute standing ovation and glowing reviews which praised Anderson for maintaining his fiercely original artistic vision in his latest artistic endeavour Unlike many other projects that came out this year the filming for The French Dispatch started back in 2018 and was wrapped up by March of 2019 which means that the pandemic did not disrupt that particular part of the production process Anderson’s latest film was set for a screening at the 2020 edition of Cannes but the Covid-19 outbreak put all such plans on a long pause With the recent premiere of The French Dispatch the fans of Anderson’s works have started asking questions on internet forums about the details related to the production The most popular query is regarding the filming location of The French Dispatch something that most people have been speculating since the project was announced Thankfully, nobody has to rely on the guesswork for the answers anymore because Anderson has confirmed that principal photography took place in a small town in southwestern France named Angoulême Called “balcony of the southwest,” Angoulême is a picturesque location situated on top of a plateau from which the river Charente is visible “We really looked hard for a town that could be a Parisian quartier like Ménilmontant Belleville or Montmartre,” Anderson told local news outlet Charente Libre in an interview While the filming took place all over town there are particular locations that will stand out when you watch the film the French office of the Kansas newspaper was constructed on the square in front of the iconic Cathédrale Saint-Pierre with the help of various props which are often used by Anderson in his films to highlight the superficial artifice of the cinematic medium scenes were filmed on rue du Sauvage and rue de Bélat for external shots while Anderson’s team utilised an abandoned felt factory near Gond-Pontouvre for its interiors The French Dispatch also stars Benicio del Toro as an imprisoned artist the crew migrated to Ruelle in order to get it just right If you’re planning to visit the world of The French Dispatch The travel plans aren’t complicated at all and can be charted out pretty quickly We recommend that you take a flight to the nearby airport of Bordeaux from where Angoulême is accessible by trains it should take you about a couple of hours to enter Wes Anderson’s cinematic universe there a lot of worthwhile options to choose from Wes Anderson personally preferred the historically significant Hôtel de Bardines even though the entire cast stayed at the luxurious Hôtel Le Saint Gelais for the duration of the filming Anderson even revealed that Bill Murray was so mesmerised by the beauty of Angoulême that he “stayed a week for a single day’s shooting” A new London exhibition will explore the making of The French Dispatch this month before its theatrical release on the 22nd of October Watch the new trailer for Wes Anderson’s highly anticipated feature below