Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme lands at Focus Features, May release date
Wes Anderson’s next movie, The Phoenician Scheme, finally has a distributor and a release date.
Focus Features will distribute The Phoenician Scheme domestically in limited release on May 30, 2025, before wide expansion on June 6, 2026. The Phoenician Scheme is Anderson’s third collaboration with Focus Features, behind 2023’s Asteroid City and 2012’s Moonrise Kingdom.
The Phoenician Scheme has been described as the story of a “family and a family business.” Benicio del Toro as Zsa-zsa Korda, one of Europe’s richest men. Mia Threapleton plays Sister Liesl, Korda’s daughter, while Michael Cera plays Bjorn Lund, their tutor.
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Like most of Anderson’s films, The Phoenician Scheme boasts a stacked ensemble of Oscar nominees and high-profile actors, which includes Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Richard Ayoade, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Anderson directs The Phoenician Scheme from a screenplay he co-wrote with his frequent collaborator, Roman Coppola. Anderson produces alongside his longtime partners Steven Rales of Indian Paintbrush, Jeremy Dawson, and John Peet.
In 2024, Anderson won his first Oscar — Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film — for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. The Netflix short film was based on Roald Dahl’s 1977 story of the same name and starred Benedict Cumberbatch.
Anderson’s last feature film, 2023’s Asteroid City, focused on the events of a Junior Stargazer convention in an American desert town in a retrofuturistic version of 1955. Those events inspired the making of a play, which is being filmed as a television documentary. Asteroid City received critical acclaim and grossed $54 million on a $25 million budget.
While not official, The Phoenician Scheme is rumored to debut at the Cannes Film Festival, the site of the world premieres of Asteroid City and The French Dispatch.
