12 new posters for The French Dispatch feature each of its characters within the wonderful world of print journalism

With a new Wes Anderson film comes a whole new aesthetic for creatives to drool over. This time, with The French Dispatch, the director takes inspiration from the epic world of print journalism. Searchlight Pictures has released its new set of posters to promote the film highlighting the 12 characters of Anderson’s world in an old-timey theatrical style, set against backdrops which seek to portray the art of print reportage and submerge each character fully into their on-screen adventures.

The New Yorker is known for its beautiful covers. Each month, the publication delivers a new painted or illustrated cover for its readers, so it was important for the creative team behind the posters to emulate the covers and making sure the fonts stand out on the poster design. The result is clean and punchy posters which facilitate design elements to shine through, thus allowing for a clear and consistent design identity to be born of the cinematic world.

The posters, whilst remaining true to Anderson’s hallmark aesthetic, are a slight move away from previous posters for his films and a contrast to the comic-book-esque original poster for The French Dispatch which featured 2D illustrated versions of the characters. The characters are depicted in a hyper-realistically painted appearance and placed over collage elements and paper materials such as maps, flyers and paper scribblings, which all provide us with hints of each character’s backstory.

The cast – arguably Anderson’s most impressive line-up yet – features, for example, Bill Murray as Arthur Howitzer Jr., the editor of The French Dispatch, who is fixed over a map of his home state of Kansas. And Lucinda Krementz, portrayed by Frances McDormand, as a journalist covering the French student revolution, so pink scribbled notes documenting the events fill her background. Timothée Chalamet playing Zeffirelli (perhaps the most keenly anticipated performance of the film) is at the head of this revolution and his figure is backed by a minimalistic painted poster which proclaims “Give us our freedom” in French. The posters are released in anticipation of the film’s global release on 22 October.