Ian Dingman, the artist who designed the cover of the Criterion Collection Bottle Rocket, graciously agreed to make a banner for the site.

You can see the glorious result above!  Thanks, Ian!

I recall noticing that something was off when I watched the robbery scene for the first time on the Criterion edition of Bottle Rocket but didn’t know what at the time.

From an Amazon review:

The Criterion 2-disc Bottle Rocket is outstanding, but don’t toss your original disc just yet… the new edition is a slightly different edit that loses one laugh and adds another. I couldn’t find any reference to these changes in the supplementary material at all.

MISSING: Originally, during the book store robbery, Anthony grabs a random book off the shelf and opens it, revealing the title page “Job Opportunities in Government – 1995″ which always gave me a little chuckle. Now for some reason the book opens to a black and white photograph of a military plane (it goes by so fast you’d have to freeze frame to make it out.)

ADDED: Originally, when Bob hands his earnings over to Future Man to cover his attorney fees, he asks if he can keep a few bucks for gas, and the scene ends. Now the scene plays a few seconds longer, and we hear Future Man’s reply: “No, you can’t.”

Perhaps the most respected male fashion bloggeur, Scott Schuman (aka The Sartorialist), has stopped Frequent [Wes] Collaborator, and dedicated turban wearer,Waris Ahluwalia for a photo in New York — Fifth Ave., to be precise. In addition to his website, Schuman also has his own page in GQ every month. That’s some fashion clout.

Waris Ahluwalia on The Sartorialist

It’s not the first time Waris has been on a fashion blog. He was on Facehunter in 2007, repping fashion designer, Benjamin Cho.

Bob Maplethorpe, potential get-away driver, go!

Brought to you by the 2009 Wes Anderson Film Festival.

Suggest the next Wes Moment! E-mail edwardappleby @ yankeeracers.org or tweet @rushmoreacademy!

The renowned jazz label Fantasy Records released a digital soundtrack for Wes Anderson’s short film Bottle Rocket (1994) back on December 9. Read on for the press release. Click below to buy it on Amazon and support the site!

1. The Chant / Artie Shaw
2. Old Devil Moon / Sonny Rollins
3. The Route / Chet Baker
4. Skating / Vince Guaraldi Trio
5. Stevie / John Coltrane
6. Nothing But The Soul / Horace Silver
7. Happiness Is / Vince Guaraldi Trio
8. Jane-O / Zoot Sims Quartet

Read the rest of this entry…

(Just a reminder: Owen Wilson will be presenting tonight’s Top Ten List on the Late Show with David Letterman.)

• From Sean, a Rushmore-inspired music video from Company of Thieves:

The debut music video from Company of Thieves, is inspired by Wes Anderson’s Rushmore. The video for the song “Oscar Wilde” was filmed at Sycamore Elementary School in Kokomo, Indiana, over the course of just one day in December 2008. It includes over 60 props which were mostly bought from flea markets and vintage stores. The video was shot on Kodak Vision3 500T 16mm film using an Eclair ACL camera with 12mm and 14mm lenses, with 23 lighting setups. The footage was digitally transferred to uncompressed 10 bit format and edited in Final Cut. If you like the song, it’s available for free download.

• The Escaped Zoo Animals have a song titled “Duplex” on their new album that references Jack Whitman’s affinity for Volatire No. 6. You can check out their music on MySpace or iTunes .
• “What is Wes Anderson’s Quirky” at That Dang Blog
• From Filter: “Bottle Up and Explode! The Origins of Wes Anderson and Bottle Rocket” |  “Jeff Goldblum, Wes Anderson Talk Film” (thanks to Thomas!)
• Emily May has written a fine article over on Senses of Cinema, “The Darjeeling Limited and the New American Traveller”
• Brandon wonders if these “daytime pajamas” were inspired by TDL.
• Film student and Yankee Racer Fahim shares with us his most recent project, which is obviously inspired by one Mr. Wes Anderson (enjoy!):

An old favorite of ours, Dave Kehr, has a great review piece on the new DVD:

Stylistically, “Bottle Rocket” swings between poles of tension and release, order and chaos. In purely visual terms the film is tightly structured, with a systematic use of color (white for Dignan, bright red for Anthony), frontal compositions anchored by the horizon line, and a self-consciously theatrical sense of space: an open foreground for the action, played against a flat, immobile background (just as the motel rises from the flatlands around it). And there is no more linear plot structure than that of the heist film, in which pleasure lies in the orderly fulfillment of a precise program.

Read the full piece.

The long-awaited Bottle Rocket Criterion Collection edition is out this Tuesday! The Blu-Ray edition has been delayed, to be released December 16 according to Amazon.com.

Be sure to buy Bottle Rocket and all of your holiday gifts through our links. It helps support the site!

DVD Beaver has a great feature on the new Criterion DVD set compared to the original DVD. Be sure click through, but here is a preview of the new Criterion Collection edition:

Update: Looks like DVD Beaver has cut off our image stealing, so head over there to see the screencaps.

(more after the break)

Read the rest of this entry…

From Stickers and Donuts.

7. How did you get to do the cover art for Bottle Rocket’s Criterion Collection? Will we see your work just on the cover, or is it on the booklet, too? (Also, do you have a favorite Wes Anderson movie?)
I received a message from Criterion outlining the “Bottle Rocket” project and asking if I was interested. Of course I was interested as well as excited. I had seen the movie a long time ago and have always been a fan of Wes’ movies as well as Eric’s artwork. He unfortunately was unavailable for the project.

The assignment turned out to be a massive undertaking that was slowly crafted over eight months. Wes was involved in every aspect of the project and nothing made it to final art without Wes’ approval. Things to look forward to: on-screen menu pages galore, my awkward hand-drawn version of Futura, and among other things I’m leaving out, a 24-page booklet that might interest even the most casual Wes Anderson fans. Favorite Wes Anderson movie? Rushmore, hands down.

Read the rest over at the delightful blog, Stickers and Donuts.

The Criterion Collection edition of Bottle Rocket – out 25 November — is now available for pre-order from Amazon.com. Order yours here, and help support this site.

We’ve decked out the page in a Bottle Rocket theme to celebrate. Let us know what you think.

And, now, to the original BR trailer: