A reclusive nun, a repeatedly assassinated tycoon, a Swedish tutor, and a fortune. These are just a few of the ingredients Wes Anderson stirs into his latest cinematic concoction, The Phoenician Scheme, the trailer for which has just been released to a blend of puzzled delight and immediate online obsession.

Premiering in Cannes this May and scheduled for wide release in August 2025, The Phoenician Scheme is already shaping up to be another symmetrical, color-coded fever dream in the director’s storied canon—but one with darker undercurrents, secret maps, and a family inheritance at stake.

The Plot: A Legacy of Survival and Secrets

The trailer introduces us to Zsa-zsa Korda, played by a monocle-wearing, cigar-puffing Benicio del Toro, as a hyper-wealthy industrialist who has survived six assassination attempts and claims to have “cheated death more times than he’s been married.” Korda’s fortunes come not just from oil, aerospace, or art—but from an ambiguous empire of “exotic mechanical infrastructure,” which includes a line of bathyspheres and two haunted airships.

The plot kicks off when Zsa-zsa, fearing the seventh attempt may succeed, names his estranged daughter, Liesl Korda—a nun with a fondness for silent films and a deep mistrust of family—as his sole heir. Liesl is played by Mia Threapleton, in what critics are already calling a breakout performance. Despite her vow of silence, Liesl is reluctantly pulled into a baroque and bizarre inheritance saga, guided by the family’s oddball academic tutor Bjorn, played by Michael Cera, sporting a Swedish accent, mismatched socks, and a briefcase full of philosophical diagrams.

Aesthetic Codes and Color Palettes

As expected from Anderson, the visuals in The Phoenician Scheme are meticulous to the point of madness. The trailer is drenched in warm cinnamon, saffron, and mint hues, with sets that range from a gothic lighthouse overlooking a rust-colored sea to a Viennese doll museum that doubles as a cryptic archive.

The cinematography—handled again by Robert Yeoman—alternates between wide-angle symmetry and paper-doll-like tableaux, creating the familiar feeling that every frame could be hung in a gallery. But there’s something sharper, more angular here. Compared to the wistful nostalgia of The French Dispatch or the melancholic surrealism of Asteroid City, this trailer promises a film that’s twitchier, hungrier, and more politically charged.

The Cast: Deadpan Royalty

Benicio del Toro is no stranger to Anderson’s universe, but his portrayal of Zsa-zsa Korda stands out as one of the director’s most exaggerated patriarchal creations yet—equal parts tragic, terrifying, and hilarious. With a prosthetic jaw, unnaturally pale hair, and a walk that resembles a limp disguised as a dance, del Toro injects gravitas and chaos into every line delivery.

Opposite him, Mia Threapleton, daughter of Kate Winslet, delivers a layered performance as Liesl. In the trailer, she speaks only once—“I never said I forgive you”—but her physical presence is magnetic. Critics have drawn comparisons to early Saoirse Ronan, but with a sharper, more sardonic edge.

And then there’s Michael Cera, who may have found his ultimate Wes Anderson avatar in Bjorn. Part Nordic stoic, part nervous wreck, Bjorn serves as the film’s metaphysical guide, quoting Kierkegaard while being chased by assassins in clown makeup.

Supporting roles include:

• Tilda Swinton as Zsa-zsa’s spiritual advisor and rumored former wife.
• Jeff Goldblum as the Korda family’s cryptographer.
• Saoirse Ronan as Liesl’s estranged twin, who lives in a silo of mirrors.
• Dev Patel as a disgraced former cartographer with ties to a Phoenician cult.

Themes: Inheritance, Identity, and Paranoia

At its core, The Phoenician Scheme appears to be a film about the traps of legacy. What does it mean to inherit power, trauma, or wealth—especially from a figure you don’t trust? The trailer hints at family secrets encoded in steamer trunks, cryptic floor plans, and a recurring image of a sinking ship stitched into tapestries across various locations.

Liesl, the nun, represents a kind of forced clarity—pulled back into the storm of her father’s ego and empire. Zsa-zsa, in contrast, is theatrical to the point of collapse, claiming he’s “never signed a contract, only declarations.” Bjorn offers the only grounded (if anxious) voice in the chaos, a stand-in for the viewer as he attempts to decode a world built on absurdity and obsession.

Wes Anderson’s Evolving World-Building

The trailer positions The Phoenician Scheme as a hybrid of spy film, inheritance drama, and philosophical comedy. Imagine The Grand Budapest Hotel merged with The Royal Tenenbaums but thrown into the world of Le Carré with a dash of Kafka. That’s the vibe here.

Stylistically, Anderson seems to be pushing the baroque textures even further. There are hand-drawn maps, stop-motion animals, and cutaways of submarines, but also security drones, slow-motion fight scenes, and even a chase sequence set in a revolving opera house.

The dialogue is, of course, vintage Anderson—clipped, witty, and filled with misdirection:

“He gave me a telescope when I turned six. He said it was for spying on relatives.”

“She hasn’t spoken since the incident with the parrot. But she sings in her sleep.”

These aren’t just one-liners—they’re threadbare myths worn by the characters, simultaneously tragic and hilarious.

Score and Soundtrack: Dissonance and Delight

While Alexandre Desplat returns to compose the film’s orchestral score, the trailer also features a rare B-side track by Serge Gainsbourg, a string arrangement of Roxy Music’s “Mother of Pearl,” and an eerie cover of ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All” played on toy piano.

It’s a sonic collage that matches the trailer’s off-kilter pacing and tonal swings, suggesting that Anderson is blending old-world cinema with modern dissonance, just as the characters blend sincerity with sabotage.

Reception and Cultural Positioning

Upon release, the trailer quickly trended on social media, with fans dissecting every visual cue for hidden meanings. Anderson’s films have long inspired meme culture, fashion trends, and even home décor aesthetics, but this one feels pointedly less sentimental and more surrealist-political.

In a post-Succession cultural moment, The Phoenician Scheme seems to be Anderson’s take on dynastic rot, legacy wealth, and familial surveillance, delivered with his trademark precision and painterly strangeness.

Film critics are already speculating about festival success, with Variety calling it “the closest Wes Anderson has come to directing a political thriller with lace curtains.”

A New Symmetry in the Chaos

The Phoenician Scheme looks to be another deeply textured world built by Anderson—but one that cracks more openly at the seams. It’s a film about secrets, silence, and the suffocating weight of inheritance—wrapped in velvet drapes and scored with harpsichords.

If the trailer is any indication, Anderson is no longer just refining his aesthetic—he’s detonating it from within, exploring the absurdity of systems, the limits of control, and the emotional costs of legacy.

Zsa-zsa says it best in the final frame of the trailer, smiling behind his monocle as a mechanical owl explodes in the background:

“This isn’t paranoia. It’s inheritance protocol.”

And with that, the scheme begins.

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