Good news, Wes Anderson fans.  It turns out we don’t have to wait until next February to see the filmmaker’s latest project, as a new short film written and directed by Anderson has been released online following its premiere at the Rome Film Festival.  Presented by Prada, Castello Cavalcanti stars Anderson’s frequent collaborator Jason Schwartzman and centers on an American race car driver who crashes in a small Italian village in 1955.  Anderson and Schwartzman previously collaborated on the short film Hotel Chevalier, and their follow-up effort is in no way a let down. It’s a fantastic and incredibly funny film, and running at nearly 8 minutes long it’s a great appetizer for Anderson’s next feature The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Hit the jump to watch the new short film.  Castello Cavalcanti also stars Giada Colagrande.

Last night’s Edward Norton-hosted episode of Saturday Night Live had a little parody fun with the holiday season, this time turning its focus to filmmaker Wes Anderson’s distinct style.  The trailer for the fake Anderson-directed horror film The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders applies the director’s style to the horror genre, complete with Norton doing a spot-on Owen Wilson impression and Alec Baldwin making a cameo as the film’s narrator.  It’s pretty funny, if a bit on the nose.  Anderson’s an easy target so I was hoping for something a tad more substantive, but the SNL team mostly resigned itself to  quick cameos of the director’s most famous characters.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  Anderson’s latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, opens in theaters on March 7, 2014. 

With director James Wan‘s The Conjuring hitting Blu-ray/DVD this coming Tuesday, I can’t encourage those who missed the film in theaters to give it a watch from the comfort of their own homes enough. As I’ve said before, I think it’s fantastic (one of my favorites so far this year, in fact) and I can’t wait to see how it holds up on multiple viewings outside of the theater. While the wife and I take great pride in our movie collection, there aren’t many new releases that I consider “must haves” on day one. The Conjuring is the exception to that rule and an instant classic that any horror fan can be proud to own.

My ringing endorsement aside, this week’s installment of the Top 5 includes Carrie interviews with Chloe Grace Moretz and more, the first trailer for Wes Anderson‘s The Grand Budapest Hotel, Kill Your Darlings interviews with the likes of Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan, a Star Wars editorial that argues against four rules being the key to making the franchise great again, and The Fifth Estate interviews with Benedict Cumberbatch and more. Like all the times before, a brief recap and link to each of the above resides after the jump.

Fox Searchlight has released the first trailer for writer/director Wes Anderson’s new film The Grand Budapest Hotel.  The story takes place in early 20th-century Hungary and revolves around the goings-on at the titular hotel, where a legendary concierge (Ralph Fiennes) takes a young employee (Tony Revolori) under his wing to become his trusted protégé.  The movie looks absolutely delightful, and there are some great laughs in this trailer.  It’s also refreshing, unexpected, and exciting to see Fiennes in a comedic role.  [Update: On a side note, Refocused Media tweets that Anderson shot the movie in three different aspect ratios (1.33, 1.85, and 2.35) for reference during it's three time periods.  I'm not sure if that means personal reference, or if it will be a reference for the audience.]

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Saoirse Ronan, F. Murray Abraham, Edward Norton, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Lea Seydoux, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwarztman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Murray, and Owen Wilson.  The Grand Budapest Hotel opens March 7, 2014

Fox Searchlight has dated writer/director Wes Anderson’s new film The Grand Budapest Hotel, and it’s luckily not too far away.  The pic will open in theaters on March 7, 2014, where it should make for some nice counter-programming opposite the action sequel 300: Rise of an Empire and Fox’s animated feature Mr. Peabody & Sherman.  The story takes place in early 20th-century Hungary and revolves around the goings-on at the titular hotel, with Ralph Fiennes playing a legendary concierge (Ralph Fiennes).  The official logline is as follows:

The Grand Budapest Hotel recounts the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend.  The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune — all against the back-drop of a suddenly and dramatically changing Continent.

Check back here on Collider tomorrow morning to catch the trailer, and click here for the first poster.  The film also stars Saoirse Ronan, F. Murray Abraham, Edward Norton, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Lea Seydoux, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwarztman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Tony Revolori.  The Grand Budapest Hotel opens in theaters sometime next year.

The first poster for writer/director Wes Anderson’s new film The Grand Budapest Hotel has arrived ahead of the pic’s first trailer, which will debut this coming Thursday, October 17th.  The story takes place in early 20th-century Hungary and revolves around the goings-on at the titular hotel, where a legendary concierge (Ralph Fiennes) takes a young employee (Saoirse Ronan) under his wing to become his trusted protégé.  Grand Budapest Hotel is notable in that this will be the first feature on which Anderson receives the sole screenwriting credit, as his previous efforts have marked collaborations with Owen Wilson, Noah Baumbach, and Roman Coppola.  Nevertheless, the filmmaker is coming off the incredibly strong Moonrise Kingdom and he’s got an excellent cast in tow for his follow-up.

Hit the jump to take a look the film’s poster, which looks to be a wonderful miniature rendering of the titular establishment.  Check back here on Thursday morning to watch the debut trailer.  The film also stars F. Murray Abraham, Edward Norton, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Lea Seydoux, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwarztman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Tony Revolori.  The Grand Budapest Hotel opens in theaters sometime next year.

Wes Anderson has his fans and detractors, but there’s no denying he has a style all his own.  His movies are peppy, sly, melancholy, playful, and delightfully odd (the bit in Fantastic Mr. Fox where they hop in the tiny motorcycle destroys me every time from laughing so hard).  Anderson’s unique movies deserve their own book, and they’ve now got a terrific one in The Wes Anderson Collection from writer Matt Zoller Seitz.  A good friend of mine edited the book, and led me to a trailer that showing the breadth and detail that went into the collection.  It’s a stunning piece of work, and it might be a little tough to call yourself a Wes Anderson fan if you don’t have it on your shelf.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The Wes Anderson Collection will be released on October 8th.  Click here to pre-order it from Amazon for 39% off.

Coming off of last year’s magnificent Moonrise Kingdom, writer/director Wes Anderson is currently in the midst of filming his highly anticipated follow-up, a period film called The Grand Budapest Hotel.  Plot details for the pic have been hard to come by thus far, but we know that it takes place in 1927 and centers around the goings-on at a Hungarian hotel.  Now a full synopsis has landed online, revealing that the central story involves a legendary concierge and a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé, with a litany of other fascinating plot points taking place at the titular hotel.  Given that Ralph Fiennes and Saoirse Ronan are leading the stellar ensemble, one assumes they will be playing the concierge and protégé.

Hit the jump for more, including the full synopsis and news regarding the film’s release date.  The pic also stars Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Jeff Goldblum, and Willem Dafoe.

The first set photos and video from Wes Anderson‘s Grand Budapest Hotel have leaked online.  Details about the film are scarce, but we know it takes place in 1927 in a Hungarian hotel and has Ralph Fiennes and Saoirse Ronan in the lead roles. Plot details are scarce, but the movie is reportedly in the vein of the films of Billy Wilder (The Apartment) and Ernest Lubitsch (The Shop Around the Corner).  The impressive cast also includes Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, F. Murray Abraham, Jude Law, and Mathieu Amalric.  In addition to showing off the setting, the images also show us the colorful costumes (I like the purple coats) and Goldblum’s commanding facial hair.

Hit the jump to check out the set photos.  Grand Budapest Hotel should arrive some time next year. [Update: We've removed the unofficial set images and video.]

For proof that 2012 was a nutty year for awards contenders, look no further than the Best Director category.  Over the past few days, we’ve been looking back how the ebbs and flows of the past 12 months have shaped the awards race in a number of categories, and one of the most dynamic shifts came with Best Director.  After the jump, we run down how the race for Oscar glory progressed over the past few months to give us the five nominees who will be vying for the gold on Oscar Sunday.  Hit the jump to read on.

A couple of new featurettes have landed online, one for an upcoming movie and one for a 2012 film that’s vying for Oscar gold:

• Oz the Great and Powerful – A new featurette for director Sam Raimi’s prequel to The Wizard of Oz shows quite a bit of new footage and does a nice job of introducing us to the cast of characters (James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, and Michelle Williams).  I find it curious that they’re trying to keep the audience guessing as to which witches are good and which are bad, since the names are the same as the ones in the source material.  The film opens in 3D on March 7th.
• Moonrise Kingdom – Hot off a Best Original Screenplay nomination for writers Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, this new featurette focuses on the genesis of the project and the writing of the incredible script.  The film is currently available on DVD, Blu-ray, and VOD.

Hit the jump to watch the featurettes.

The nominations for the 85th Academy Awards have been announced, and it’s quite a whirlwind of nominees.  As expected, Lincoln landed the most nominations with 12, followed with Ang Lee’s Life of Pi which nabbed 11.  The big story here, though, is the Best Director category.  Shockingly, only two (two!) of the DGA nominees for Best Director made the Oscar cut: Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg.  The rest of the category was filled out by Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild, David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook, and Michael Haneke for Amour.  It was almost guaranteed that Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow would be landing nominations for Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, respectively, but shockingly neither made the cut.  Apparently those films just directed themselves.  Based off today’s nominations, it now looks like it’s (surprisingly) down to Lincoln vs. Silver Linings Playbook for the big win.

Hit the jump to check out the list of nominees, and click here to check them against my predictions (somehow I predicted the Best Picture and Supporting Actor categories perfectly).  The 85th Academy Awards will take place on February 24th.

At last, Oscar is upon us.  Back in November I shared a look at the early awards season race by way of our 2013 Oscar Preview articles, and now nearly two months later there’s still quite a bit up in the air.  This truly is one of the more exciting awards races in recent years, as 2012 is so stacked with quality that there are a surprising number of uncertainties this close to the Academy Awards ceremony.  Nevertheless, I am once again foolishly going to attempt to predict how the Oscar nominations will shake out when they’re announced tomorrow morning, January 10th.  Hit the jump to check out my predictions.

As we head into the thick of awards season, we’re starting to see how the various guilds stack up with regards to the best of 2012 (the PGA nominations were announced yesterday).  The guilds are usually a good Oscar predictor as their voting bodies overlap significantly with the Academy’s voting body, and today we have a peek into the screenplay race by way of the nominations for the 2013 Writers Guild Awards.  The list includes some pleasant surprises like Rian Johnson’s brilliantly original script for Looper and Steven Chbosky’s touching adaptation of his own novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, as well as expected candidates like The Master, Moonrise Kingdom, Zero Dark Thirty, and Lincoln.

Each year a number of screenplays are ruled ineligible for the WGA’s, and this year is no exception as Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, Behn Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, and William Nicholson’s Les Miserables were all  ineligible for WGA consideration for various insignificant reasons.  Hit the jump to check out the full list of WGA nominations.  The 2013 Writers Guild Awards will be held on February 17th.

Coming off of 2012’s splendid Moonrise Kingdom, writer/director Wes Anderson is putting the pieces together for his next feature, Grand Budapest Hotel.  As usual with Anderson’s films, plot details are scarce, but we do know that the story takes place 85 years ago and centers on the troubles and tribulations of a hotel concierge played by Ralph Fiennes.  As production gears up to begin, word now comes that one of Anderson’s recent collaborators will be joining the project: composer Alexandre Desplat.  Hit the jump for more details.