Asteroid City movie storyline. Set in a retro-futuristic version of the 1950s, a TV host introduces a televised production of (the in-universe fictional) Asteroid City, a play by famed playwright Conrad Earp. In the play, a youth astronomy convention is held in the fictional desert town of Asteroid City. The play’s events are depicted in widescreen and stylized color, while the television special is seen in black-and-white Academy ratio.
In the play, war photojournalist Augie Steenbeck arrives early to the Junior Stargazer convention with Woodrow, his intellectual teenage son, and his three younger daughters. When their car breaks down, Augie phones his father-in-law, Stanley, asking his help. Stanley, who dislikes his son-in-law, persuades him to tell the children about their mother’s recent death, which Augie had concealed.
Augie and Woodrow meet Midge Campbell, a famous but world-weary actress, and her daughter Dinah, who, like Woodrow, will be honored at the convention. Augie and Midge, and Woodrow and Dinah, gradually fall in love throughout the play. The other convention participants arrive: five-star General Grif Gibson, astronomer Dr. Hickenlooper, three additional teenaged honorees (Ricky, Clifford, and Shelly) and their parents (J.J., Roger, and Sandy), a busload of elementary-school children chaperoned by young teacher June Douglas, and a cowboy band led by singer Montana. A local motel provides everyone’s accommodations.
Gibson welcomes the attendees at the Asteroid City crater where the teenagers are to receive awards for various inventions. A UFO suddenly appears above the crater; an alien emerges and steals a fragment of the meteorite that created the crater. Augie photographs the alien.
The President and General Gibson order the town placed under military quarantine, and everyone is subjected to medical and psychiatric examinations. Meanwhile, a romance blossoms between Montana and June, who assure the students that the alien is likely peaceful. The Stargazer honorees use Dr. Hickenlooper’s equipment to attempt to contact the alien. Using a guarded pay phone, Ricky calls his school newspaper to relay the quarantine details and cover-up to the outside world.
The Asteroid City events become national news. A furious General Gibson is about to end the quarantine when the UFO reappears and the alien returns the meteorite fragment. When Gibson reinstates the quarantine, the children, scientists, and parents revolt, using the honorees’ inventions to overpower the military.
The play’s creation is interspersed between the play. Some time after Conrad Earp started writing, he meets with actor Jones Hall, who performs an audition in Earp’s home and is immediately cast. During the same interaction, Earp and Hall kiss, establishing their relationship as lovers. Earp writes the play with help from a local acting school and recruits most cast members from it, including Mercedes Ford, a temperamental yet talented actress who plays Midge.
Asteroid City is a 2023 American comedy-drama film written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson, from a story he wrote with Roman Coppola. It features an ensemble cast including Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Steve Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan and Jeff Goldblum.
Its metatextual plot simultaneously depicts the events of a Junior Stargazer convention in a retrofuturistic version of 1955, staged as a play, and the creation of the play.[6] It is Anderson’s homage to popular memory and mythology about extraterrestrials and UFOs witnessed in the Southwestern desert in close proximity to atomic test sites during the postwar period of the American 20th century.
Asteroid City premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2023, where it competed for the Palme d’Or. It began a limited theatrical release via Focus Features in the United States on June 16, 2023, before expanding to a wide release a week later.[7] It has grossed over $47 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews.
Asteroid City (2023)
Directed by: Wes Anderson
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Margot Robbie
Screenplay by: Wes Anderson
Production Design by: Adam Stockhausen
Cinematography by: Robert Yeoman
Film Editing by: Barney Pilling
Costume Design by: Milena Canonero
Set Decoration by: Kris Moran
Art Direction by: Fernando Contreras Díaz, Stéphane Cressend
Music by: Alexandre Desplat
MPAA Rating: PG-13 on appeal for brief graphic nudity, smoking and some suggestive material.
Distributed by: Focus Features (United States), Universal Pictures (international)
Release Date: May 23, 2023 (Cannes), June 16, 2023 (United States)
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