Moonrise Kingdom doesn't open in theaters until May 25, but it's preparing for its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this week, which means it's a perfect time to introduce some new featurettes about the movie. And because it wouldn't be a Wes Anderson movie if everything, including the marketing, didn't feel meticulously planned, the featurettes are far from your generic pieces with sit-down interviews featuring the cast and general behind the scenes footage. Each featurette is narrated by Bob Balaban, who plays the narrator in the actual film itself, and he's standing in front of a map of the fictional New Penzance Island like a fifth-grade geography teacher. As you might expect, they're pretty great.
In the first one, Balaban explains how they use 300 kid extras to play the fictional Khaki Scouts, and how Anderson-- with what are apparently some killer rock-skipping skills-- bonded with the kids, while also directing all of their scenes in his trademark khaki suits. Maybe that helped them feel part of the same team?
There's more rock-skipping in the second clip, which focuses on Edward Norton, who plays the leader of Khaki Scout Troop 55. He also would play with his hat when things got tense on set, and at one point, held an iPhone. You may be learning by now that Balaban's narration is about as quirky as you usually expect from an Anderson movie.
In the next one, we're focusing on Bruce Willis, who takes a spritz bottle to the face at the very beginning, and as you might expect, doesn't seem so happy about it. He plays the only policeman on the island, investigating the case of the two missing kids who run off together and set the plot in motion.
And finally, here's a featurette focusing on Bill Murray, whom Wes Anderson says frightened him the first time he met him. Murray plays golf behind the scenes, does some falling down stunts, walks through a shot shirtless, and does about as many weird things as you'd expect from Bill Murray on a Wes Anderson set.
We won't be at Cannes, but we are seeing it this week, so expect thoughts on how Moonrise Kingdom fits in with Anderson's other work very, very soon.
