Fantastic Mr Fox to open London
The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival (LFF, October 14-29) will open with the world premiere of Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox, his first animated film and his return to the festival after The Darjeeling Limited.
Anderson, together with Noah Baumbach, adapted the script from British author Roald Dahl’s bestselling children’s book. The stop motion film looks at a domesticated fox who tires of his bucolic existence and returns to his sly chicken hunting ways until he comes up against a trio of evil farmers.
The film features the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe and Owen Wilson, amongst others.
LFF Artistic Director Sandra Hebron said, “Wes Anderson’s boundless invention and meticulous film making craft find perfect expression in this imaginative and hugely enjoyable version of a much loved story. We are delighted to open our festival with Fantastic Mr Fox, and thrilled to host its world premiere.”
Anderson said, “Fantastic Mr Fox is a British film – based on a Roald Dahl book, set in the UK, produced in the UK – and so I am especially pleased to have been invited to be the opening night movie of this year’s London Film Festival. We had a wonderful experience at the LFF with my previous film, and I am eagerly looking forward to introducing Fantastic Mr Fox to the world in this wonderful venue.”
The film was shot at London’s Three Mills Studios and Twentieth Century Fox will release the film in the UK on October 23. Warner Bros will release the film in the Netherlands while FS Film Oy has Finland rights.
The full festival programme will be announced on September 9.
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