Wes Anderson isn't driving the bus. Laurent is. That's the name of the driver who's bringing Anderson, and his bus, to the Cannes Film Festival.
As they drive from his home in Paris to the South of France, Anderson explains by phone: "I don't drive the bus. You have to have, like, four years of training and an EU bus driver's license. The thing is, if you're going to drive a bus like this, you've got to be able to drive it in reverse, too."
For years, Anderson has, in favor of the normal festival cars that shuttle guests, brought his own bus to Cannes so his whole cast can arrive together at the premiere. On Sunday, Anderson and company including Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Scarlett Johansson and Bryan Cranston will pile in for the premiere of Anderson's latest, "The Phoenician Scheme."
It's another example of how Anderson has made something quite unusual into a regular tradition.
With remarkable regularity, Anderson has been crafting movies uniquely his own since his 1996 debut, "Bottle Rocket." There are variations. Some are expansive family dramas "The Royal Tenenbaums". Some are more intimate "Rushmore". Some are more densely layered "Asteroid City".