First announced last December, Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs project now has a locked-in release date.
The stop-motion movie — which boasts a star-studded cast with names including Ed Norton, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Yoko Ono, Greta Gerwig, Bryan Cranston and Liev Schreiber — is set in Japan and follows a young boy's odyssey in search of his dog.
With filming well underway, a premiere date has been set for April 20, 2018 (yes, on 4/20.) Accordingly, we can also take a look at the poster from the forthcoming promotional campaign:
While the image gives little away, the boy (who is the protagonist, we assume) can be seen with a parachute attached, standing next to a downed fighter jet. It's also typical of Anderson's quirky auteurship that the talking dogs are wearing clothes.
According to Variety, Anderson has said the movie is "heavily influenced by the work of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, as well as Rankin-Bass stop-motion Christmas specials." The director's last animated feature, Fantastic Mr. Fox, came back in 2009 and was nominated for two Academy Awards.
Look out for more news on the hotly-anticipated flick as it emerges.
Elsewhere in movieland, the early critic reviews of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 are in.