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Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
Directed by Wes Anderson.
Directed by Wes Anderson · Shot by Robert Yeoman · Cut by Andrew Weisblum · Music by Alexandre Desplat · 95 min
How it was made
- Anderson spent a year writing the first 15 pages of the script alone before bringing in Roman Coppola, with the pair finishing the rest of the screenplay together in one month.
- Casting the two child leads took eight months of auditions across different schools; Anderson chose Jared Gilman for being immediately funny thanks to his glasses and long hair, and cast Kara Hayward because she read the script naturally, as though it were real life.
- Six artists were commissioned to design jacket covers for the fictitious storybooks Suzy carries, with Anderson writing original passages for each one; he considered animating the scenes where she reads aloud but chose to shoot her reading live with the other actors listening instead.
- Costume designer Kasia Walicka-Maimone based Suzy and Sam's outfits on 1960s photographs and real Boy Scout uniforms, while the film's animal costumes were deliberately designed to look homemade for a school production rather than styled on genuine Noye's Fludde costumes.
- Cinematographer Robert Yeoman shot the film on Super 16mm rather than Anderson's usual 35mm anamorphic format, using Aaton Xtera and A-Minima cameras that Anderson felt suited filming child actors because the cameras were roughly the same height as the kids.
- The first kiss between Sam and Suzy was left unrehearsed to keep it spontaneous, and it was the first kiss, on or off screen, for both young actors.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Wes Anderson
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