There’s an extra bit of whimsy permeating on the internet today, and that’s because it’s director Wes Anderson’s birthday. I’m not sure what Anderson plans on doing for his 44th birthday, but I’d like to imagine that Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson have already lined up an evening of cruising around the streets of Bordeaux in a dune buggy and throwing firecrackers at angry shopkeepers.
Anywho, the event offers up the opportunity to do a run-through of the Wes Anderson spoofs littered throughout YouTube. Pour yourself a glass of cab, light up a smoke with one of those fancy cigarette holders and enjoy these parodies of Wes Anderson’s style — with some even directed by Anderson himself.
1. Point Break as done by Wes Anderson and other directors.
So we’re likely getting a Point Break remake — not as traumatizing as the RoboCop remake, but unnecessary still. On the bright side, the news did spur this spoof of what Johnny Utah might be like under the lens of Wes Anderson, David Lynch and Tommy Wiseau.
2. SNL gives us the Wes Anderson horror movie.
One of the standouts of Edward Norton’s first SNL hosting gig was the perfectly titled horror spoof The Midnight Coterie Of Sinister Intruders. It’s good to know that if Owen Wilson ever makes a successful suicide attempt, Ed Norton could slip into his roles without missing a beat. “Da fuh?”
3. Wes Anderson directs his own parody.
The video says this commercial for Amex came out in 2007, but it was actually 2004 as part of a theatrical promotion for The Life Aquatic. The layout with Wes giving Jason Schwartzman advice and asking for a magnum with a bayonet is itself a parody of the 1973 French film, Day For Night by François Truffaut.
4. Lord Of The Rings gets a Wes Anderson remix.
Add a yellow tint, some yellow type and the soundtrack from The Darjeeling Limited — minus the Rolling Stones’ “Play With Fire” — and what you’ve got is a Wes Anderson movie, only with more dwarfs and orcs.
5. Conan presents Wes Anderson presents, Star Wars: Episode VII.
All the cheesy, macho Han Solo lines of the original Star Wars films, only this time he and Chewy ride around in a motorcycle with a side car.
6. Spider-Man, the Wes Anderson version.
Next to Italian Spider-Man, this is probably my favorite Spidey spoof on the web. What it lacks in web-slinging action and CGI special effects it makes up for with 1960s-style pop music and cigarette smoking.
7. Moonrise In Black.
The premise is pretty standard, fuse Men In Black III with some Wes Anderson aesthetics and tah-dah, you’ve got yourself a Will Smith movie with that vintage vibe that gives New York Times critics an instant hard-on.
8. Wes Anderson and Brad Pitt team up for a Japanese commercial.
We haven’t seen Brad Pitt in any Wes Anderson movies yet, but the director brought Pitt in for this 2008 ad for Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank. The commercial has all the Wes Andersonisms you’d expect, but is a parody of Jacques Tati’s 1953 French film Les Vacances de Monseieur Hulot. Pitt and Anderson actually filmed two commercials for SoftBank, but the company never ran the second one.
9. How to make a Wes Anderson movie.
Before this video the only template for making a Wes Anderson movie was repeated viewings of The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore. If you’re going to make a Wes Anderson movie though, you’re going to need at least these three essentials: a pocket knife, French pop music, and the color yellow.
10. Wes Anderson lends his talent to Stella Artois.
Wes Anderson teamed up with Roman Coppala for this 2010 beer ad. (Doing a beer commercial seems like the least Wes Anderson thing Wes Anderson could do, but everybody has a thirst for that sweet beer money, I suppose.) The ad itself borrows from Down With Love which was a knockoff of Sex And The Single Girl.