We thought there couldn't possibly be any more casting announcements for Wes Anderson's already thoroughly starry latest, The French Dispatch. But it turns out there's one more name we didn't yet know. Saoirse Ronan, who worked with Anderson previously in The Grand Budapest Hotel, has confirmed that she is indeed on the call sheet – although she didn't reveal anything about the character she's playing or the size of the role.
As well as Ronan and Anderson, it also marks a reunion for the actress and Timothée Chalamet, with whom she starred in Greta Gerwig's excellent Lady Bird. The pair will also both be in Gerwig's Little Women.
Anderson has already started work on The French Dispatch, his first live-action since Grand Budapest, after the stop-motion sidestep Isle Of Dogs. The new film is operating under a veil of typical secrecy, but is so far described as "a love letter to journalists" (thanks, Wes!) and set in the 20th Century in the Parisian office of an American newspaper (kids, ask your parents). Three discrete storylines will, we hear, weave their way around each other.
Benicio Del Toro and Jeffrey Wright are also in the cast, alongside some returning Anderson veterans Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Anderson regular Bill Murray, and we can just picture the Parisian party-crashing going on there. Rumours pointed to the possible involvement of Natalie Portman, Brad Pitt and Léa Seydoux, but there has been no confirmation on any of them just yet.
The film will shoot well into 2019 for a likely release in 2020.
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