Wes Anderson Announces Star-Studded Isle of Dogs Cast (Which Could Include You!)

Wes Anderson has officially announced the cast, title, and other details of his upcoming stop-motion film Isle of Dogs. While this project was first announced last year, all we knew about the film was that it’d be a “Japanese-inspired” movie about dogs and that Jeff Goldblum, Bob Balaban, Edward Norton, and Bryan Cranston would be starring in the film.

In the video, the director reveals the cast is even more star-studded with Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, F. Murray Abraham, Tilda Swinton, Kunichi Nomura, Harvey Keitel, Akira Ito, Akira Takayama, Koyu Rankin, Yoko Ono, Courtney B. Vance, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, and Liev Schreiber. What a group of names! I’m especially excited to see that there are a number of Japanese names and Yoko Ono. The Japanese influence definitely shows itself in the film’s concept art, so I hope that these actors will get prominent roles.

While I know “inspired” doesn’t mean the film will be set in Japan (they’re beginning production in London now), it would be very exciting to see more diversity in Anderson’s films. The casting reminds me that as much as I loved Kubo and the Two Strings, I was bummed that many of the Japanese voices were only given small speaking roles (George Takei only appeared in a few scenes although his name appeared in much of the marketing). Combined with the fact that the film includes Swinton and Johansson, who have historically not been the best in terms of not taking roles meant for Asians, Isle of Dogs has an opportunity to spotlight Asian voices I hope it doesn’t waste.

That’s not the only news in the video, however. In addition to a short look at Norton’s dog character, Rex, Anderson invites you to join a raffle through Crowd Rise. By donating anywhere from $10 up to the Film Foundation you can win signed DVDs or even a trip to London where you’ll get to be the voice of a dog in the film! You can enter here.

It’ll be interesting to see the Fantastic Mr. Fox director return to animation, though he didn’t address that disturbing thing where his movies seem to actively hate dogs. Are you excited for Isle of Dogs?

(via Indiewire)

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google+.