The French Dispatch trailer: Bill Murray turns into a cranky editor-in-chief in Wes Anderson's 'love letter to journalists'

A day after debuting the first poster, the makers of director Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch have now dropped the first trailer of the movie. Set in a fictional French city in the 1960s, Anderson’s latest venture centers on a The New Yorker-inspired magazine, where Bill Murray plays Arthur Howitzer Jr, the curmudgeonly editor of The French Dispatch. Frances McDormand’s character, journalist Lucinda Krementz, introduces the said magazine as a publication that covers “world politics, the arts high and low, and diverse stories of human interest” among various other things. Timothée Chalamet’s bathtub sequence, which received much prominence in the official poster, is also played out in the trailer, along with an appearance from Saoirse Ronan. Check out the trailer here

According to the  official description, The French Dispatch is a “love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th-century French city and brings to life a collection of stories published in The French Dispatch magazine.” The trailer is imbued with all things Wes Anderson, from pastel-hued cityscapes, whimsical characters to abundance of stairways. Apart from Murray, McDormand, Ronan and Chalamet, the stellar ensemble cast also comprises the director’s frequent collaborator Tilda Swinton, Owen Wilson, Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Elisabeth Moss, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Lois Smith, Christoph Waltz, Cécile De France, Guillame Gallienne, Jason Schwartzman, Tony Revolori, Rupert Friend, Henry Winkler, Bob Balaban, Hippolyte Girardot, and Anjelica Huston. As reported earlier Wilson essays Herbsaint Sazerac, a character inspired by low-life beat writer Joseph Mitchell. Adrien Brody portrays an art dealer Julian Cadazio, who was the subject of a six-part New Yorker profile from 1951. Tilda Swinton plays The French Dispatch writer JKL Berensen. Benicio del Toro essays the role of an imprisoned artist Moses Rosenthaler, and Léa Seydoux plays his prison guard and muse, Simone. Lyna Khoudri and Timothée Chalamet portray student revolutionaries Juliette and Zeffrelli, respectively. The film is slated to release on 24 July.