The 20-disc release brings Anderson’s first ten movies to 4K with Dolby Vision, and more than 25 hours of extras.
The Criterion Collection is giving Wes Anderson’s early cinema a glossy upgrade, announcing a 20-disc box set of his first ten features on 4K UHD and Blu-ray, set to arrive September 30. Approved by the director, the release spans 25 years of work—from the Texan caper Bottle Rocket (1996) to the print-loving ensemble piece The French Dispatch (2021).
Each title—Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, and The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun—has been newly mastered in 4K under Anderson’s supervision. The UHD discs feature Dolby Vision HDR, matched with 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks.
Criterion’s set layers on more than 25 hours of extras: commentaries, cast and crew interviews, documentaries, deleted scenes, animation tests, auditions, home movies, commercials, storyboards, visual essays, and still-image galleries. The slipcase carries new writing by Martin Scorsese, Richard Brody, James L. Brooks, Bilge Ebiri, Moeko Fujii, Kent Jones, Dave Kehr, Geoffrey O’Brien, and Erica Wagner.
“Wes Anderson’s first 10 films represent 25 years of irrepressible creativity, an ongoing ode to outsiders and quixotic dreamers, and a world unto themselves, graced with a mischievous wit and a current of existential melancholy that flows through every captivating frame,” Criterion says.
The collection lands four months after Anderson’s twelfth feature, The Phoenician Scheme, opens in theaters on May 30—offering new viewers a straight line back to the color-coded corridors, perfectly squared frames, and wistful heroes that sparked the director’s cult following.
