Asteroid City

Asteroid City is a 2023 American science fiction comedy drama film written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson, from a story he wrote with Roman Coppola. It features an ensemble cast, including Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Steve Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, and Jeff Goldblum. Its plot mostly follows a play about a Junior Stargazer convention in a retrofuturistic version of 1955, but it becomes metatextual because the making of the play is the subject of a television documentary. The story is about extraterrestrials and UFOs witnessed in the American Southwestern desert in close proximity to atomic test sites after World War II.

The project was announced in September 2020 as an untitled romance film, with Anderson writing, producing and directing, alongside Jeremy Dawson of American Empirical Pictures and Steven Rales of Indian Paintbrush. In February 2021, it was described as being about a "group of brainy teenagers". Originally set for Rome, filming took place in Chinchón, Spain, between August and October, 2021, with cinematographer Robert D. Yeoman. Several sets resembling a desert landscape and a mock train station were used. Post-production included editor Barney Pilling and a musical score composed by frequent Anderson composer Alexandre Desplat, featuring country and western songs from many artists. The official title for Asteroid City was revealed in October 2021 at the BFI London Film Festival.

Asteroid City premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2023, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. It began a limited theatrical release through Focus Features in the United States on June 16, 2023, expanding to a wide release a week later. It grossed $54 million worldwide on a $25 million budget, and received generally positive reviews.

In a retro-futuristic version of the 1950s, a television host introduces a documentary about the creation and production of Asteroid City, a play by the famed playwright Conrad Earp. The play's events are depicted in widescreen and stylized color, while the television special is seen in black-and-white Academy ratio.

In the play, a youth astronomy convention is held in the fictional desert town of Asteroid City. War photojournalist Augie Steenbeck arrives early to the Junior Stargazer convention with Woodrow, his intellectual teenage son, and his three younger daughters. When their car breaks down, Augie phones his father-in-law, Stanley, asking for his help. Stanley, who dislikes his son-in-law, persuades him to tell the children about their mother's recent death, which Augie had concealed. Augie and Woodrow meet Midge Campbell, a famous but world-weary actress, and her daughter Dinah, who, like Woodrow, will be honored at the convention. Augie and Midge, and Woodrow and Dinah, gradually fall in love throughout the play.

The other convention participants arrive:

A local motel provides everyone's accommodations.

Gibson welcomes the attendees at the Asteroid City crater where the teenagers are to receive awards for various inventions. A UFO suddenly appears above the crater; an alien emerges and steals the remnant of the meteorite that created the crater. Augie manages to photograph the creature. Gibson, with instructions from the president, places the town under military quarantine, and everyone is subjected to medical and psychiatric examinations. Meanwhile, a romance blossoms between Montana and June, who assure the students that the alien is likely peaceful. The Stargazer honorees use Dr. Hickenlooper's equipment to attempt to contact the alien. Tricking the guard watching the pay phone, Ricky calls his school newspaper to relay the quarantine details and cover-up to the outside world.