wes anderson draws on venetian palazzos for the phoenician scheme

The Phoenician Scheme by wes anderson hits theaters

Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme unveils an opulent fever dream of mid-century European power, industry, and family dysfunction. After its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival 2025, in competition for the Palme d’Or, the film begins an international rollout in late May, arriving in select US theaters on May 30 before expanding to a wider release on June 6.

Beyond Benicio del Toro’s magnetic turn as Anatole ‘Zsa-zsa’ Korda, a 1950s tycoon who survives his sixth plane crash, the movie is a love letter to craftsmanship, practical effects, and the immersive possibilities of set design. Shot almost entirely at Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam, Germany, Wes Anderson’s tenth feature film transforms its soundstage locations into a total cinematic spectacle. ‘It was going to be a movie made on a soundstage,’ he explains. ‘I knew the stages.’ This is Anderson’s most extensive use of studio environments yet, and his collaboration with production designer Adam Stockhausen delivers a visual world inspired by illusory marble walls and columns, found in Venetian palazzos and Berlin villas.

images courtesy of Focus Features

Adam Stockhausen’s set design draws from venetian palazzos

Adam Stockhausen, Anderson’s longtime collaborator on Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, The French Dispatch, Asteroid City, and the short film The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, returns to the filmmaker’s signature world of symmetry, theatricality, and obsessive detail. For this film, titled The Phoenician Scheme, the American production designer orchestrated an ever-shifting mosaic of spaces to house Zsa-zsa’s sprawling ambitions and inner contradictions. ‘There were several key references,’ recalls Stockhausen. ‘Probably the most important were inspired by Calouste Gulbenkian’s Paris house and a palazzo in Venice. There are actually a couple of locations, of course, but mostly just as a basis for builds.’ For the grand entrance gallery, the team visited castles and villas around Berlin. ‘Many had trompe l’oeil marble walls and columns of remarkable craftsmanship,’ adds producer Jeremy Dawson. ‘So we decided to replicate that, not as a fake version of the process, but in the same real hand-painted way it had been done originally, back then.’

The interior of Zsa-zsa’s grand residence sets the tone with its marble walls, burnished brass, and priceless art, curating the life of a collector-king. Anderson and art curator Jasper Sharp secured loans from institutions including the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Nahmad and Pietzsch collections. Renoirs and Magrittes sit alongside 14th-century wood carvings, brought in under strict white-glove supervision. ‘Several people that I approached hung up the phone laughing,’ recalls art curator Jasper Sharp. ‘But a combination of curiosity and the sense of adventure won out.’ One standout piece, a Renoir once owned by actress Greta Garbo, now sits above Liesl’s bed, the character portrayed by Mia Threapleton, described as ‘the perfect foil to the madness going on around it.’

Benicio del Toro and Mia Threapleton as Anatole ‘Zsa-zsa’ Korda and Sister Liesl

custom props by cartier, dunhill, and prada

The production’s approach extends far beyond wall treatments. The infrastructure model of Korda’s land-and-sea scheme is designed by Simon Weisse, who previously built the miniatures of Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. This time, the model had to be strong enough for Benedict Cumberbatch to scale and fragile enough to be blown apart. ‘We practiced in the parking lot,’ remembers producer Jeremy Dawson. ‘Simon and his model-making team spent the entire shoot building the thing and we blew it up on nearly the last day.’

Design details sneak into every frame. Erica Dorn and Lucile Gauvain lead the graphics team behind the hieroglyphics in the Egyptian Revival ballroom, while Milena Canonero’s costumes carry Anderson’s signature stylization from hat to shoelace. ‘Working with Wes on the costume design, one has to enter into a special frame of mind,’ observes Canonero. ‘It’s a very sophisticated concept that has to fit together with the art direction and photography and performances like a hyperreal jigsaw puzzle.’ Del Toro agrees. ‘Wes’s writing, a little bit of me, and Milena’s wardrobe,’ he comments. The practical effects team (Nefzer Special Effects) grounds the visuals in physical texture, using a puppet for the dragonfly on the window, cotton balls for clouds, and rear projection skies. ‘Adam’s production is just crazy,’ remarks del Toro. Even Liesl’s Cartier-crafted gift, her Dunhill corncob pipe, and her Prada rucksack were custom-made, drawing on Zsa-zsa’s obsession with bespoke legacy. ‘What would Zsa-zsa get for Liesl? He would have Cartier do it, so we asked, and they did it for us,’ says Anderson.

Adam Stockhausen delivers a visual world inspired by illusion marble walls

haus 5 renamed in tribute to the filmmaker’s visual legacy

Studio Babelsberg, already legendary for hosting Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, fully embraced the production. After The Phoenician Scheme’s filming, the Haus 5 building, which hosts costume and production design offices, was officially renamed The Wes Anderson Building. ‘Walking around the spaces for the first time, I don’t think I will ever, ever forget that feeling,’ admits Mia Threapleton. ‘I don’t know how [Adam] did what he did. I don’t know how his brain does what it does.’

Through physical design, The Phoenician Scheme is a maximalist opera of control and collapse, where every detail reveals something about Zsa-zsa’s inner workings. As Anderson puts it: ‘Our film is about a man who is like a mountain.’

the interior of Zsa-zsa’s grand residence sets the tone