Wes Anderson says his directorial debut ‘Bottle Rocket’ was a “disaster”
nme.comWes Anderson has admitted that his 1996 directorial debut Bottle Rocket was a “disaster”.The Oscar-nominated director, who recently helmed the short Netflix film The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar, made the confession while talking to attendees at the Lumière Film Festival (via Variety), and added that he wouldn’t have made it had he known how much audiences were going to hate it.The film centres on the character of Anthony (Luke Wilson) just as he’s released from a mental hospital, only to find that his wacky friend Dignan (Owen C.
Wilson) is determined to begin an outrageous crime spree.Anderson said of the film: “I had an idea of what I wanted to do, and no one could convince me that we shouldn’t do it, my confidence was the highest, then.
When we finally made it and showed it to an audience, they hated it. I was so shocked, it was a disaster.”He continued: “But that changed me: Had I known that before, I probably wouldn’t have made that movie, and I’m glad of that, because the blind confidence you have when you’re young, you need it!”Anderson recently explained how he first “blamed the audience” for the poor critical reception to the film.
The Asteroid City director said during the 2023 Venice Film Festival that “when we screened the movie publicly, we didn’t screen it in an encouraging environment.
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