Wes Anderson is one of the few directors who have become more famous for the form of his films than for his own stories. Despite having in his career such highly rated films as Life Aquatic or Moonrise Kingdom, his color palette, symmetry and art direction stand out so much that it makes everything else pale.
However, it’s because of his skill with production design that every actor wants to work with him, so no Hollywood star can say no when Anderson comes knocking on their door. For his next film, Asteroid City, he wanted to keep his aesthetic intact, and for this he has chosen a location that very few would imagine for a Wes Anderson film: Chinchón.
Chinchon AKA Asteroid City
Chinchón is a municipality in the Community of Madrid with a little more than 5,000 inhabitants. Belonging to the region of Las Vegas, it is a flat place surrounded by desert in which the stone structures of many of its ancient buildings are maintained. Thus, it has an emblematic main square, a medieval castle and an aesthetic Clock Tower.
When Wes Anderson announced his filming there, many thought it would be a medieval film or something touristy in Spain. However, when the synopsis was revealed it became quite clear why Chinchón was an ideal location for the making of this film:
In 1955, schoolchildren and parents from all over the country gather for a school contest dedicated to the observation of astronomical phenomena (Junior Stargazer Convention) held in a fictitious American desert town called Asteroid City. The convention will be spectacularly interrupted by world-changing events.
If the story takes place in the United States and in the middle of the desert, why would Wes Anderson want to shoot in Chinchón? In addition to the tax incentives, Chinchón is a town in the middle of nowhere, with large areas of land that can be shaped to accommodate Anderson’s style of filming. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that he chose this location.
In fact, while the filming was taking place, several reports were made trying to see how life in the town had changed with this production, and the answer was quite clear: almost nothing. The inhabitants hardly saw the cast and focused on carrying out sets on the outskirts of the village, so they have barely taken advantage of some of the spaces.
A star-studded film
Although it’s a bit of a shame, considering Wes Anderson’s style, it makes sense. In the end, this is a director whose sets he measures completely, and while he takes advantage of some of reality, almost all of it takes place on sets made to his own form. This allows him to control much more of their symmetry and color, though it also distances him from any possible blueprint of reality.
In the latest trailer of Asteroid City that we have already been able to see, we can better understand the aesthetic capacity of the film. Wes Anderson has created a fictitious town in the middle of Spain, taking advantage of some of the natural resources provided by the surface of the Community of Madrid.
Thus, although we can glimpse some recognizable spaces, in general it is something completely apart from the real universe; that is, a shot that only exists in the director’s mind. This is not surprising considering his trajectory, and considering that he has to imitate the United States, he probably had no other choice.
The film will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023, and then hit theaters around the world on June 16 of the same year. The cast includes Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Scarlett Johansson, Maya Hawke, Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Rupert Friend, Jason Schwartzman, Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Hope Davis, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber, Tony Revolori, Matt Dillon, Sophia Lillis, Jeff Goldblum and Fisher Stevens.
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