Charlie Kaufman’s ‘Anomalisa’ Set For Winter Release
Your holiday season just got a little bit weirder. Paramount Pictures has setCharlie KaufmanandDuke Johnson’s stop-motion featureAnomalisafor a winter release, followinga buzzy world premiereat the Telluride Film Festival.Jennifer Jason Leigh,David Thewlis, andTom Noonanprovide voices. Get theAnomalisarelease date details after the jump.
THRreports Paramount has just scooped upAnomalisain a mid-seven-figure deal, and set it for an Oscar-qualifying limited release startingDecember 30in New York and Los Angeles. We can probably assume it’ll roll out to other U.S. markets sometime in January.Anomalisacenters on a lonely motivational speaker (Thewlis) who connects with a mysterious woman (Leigh).
It’s cause for celebration anytime Kaufman has a new film out, and it’s been an especially long time since his last one. It’s not for lack of trying on his part. He was working on a movie musical,Frank or Francis, thatfell apart at the last minute, and then on an FX pilot,How or Why, thatgot turned down. So we haven’t actually seen a completed project from him since 2008’sSynecdoche, New York.
WhileAnomalisarepresents Kaufman’s first foray into stop-motion animation, Johnson’s credits include the short filmBefore Oreland that stop-motion Christmas episode ofCommunity.Anomalisabegan its winding path to the big screen three years ago witha Kickstarter campaign, which raised over $400,000.
Here’s the official synopsis forAnomalisa:
Michael Stone, husband, father and respected author of “How May I Help You Help Them?,” is a man crippled by the mundanity of his life. On a business trip to Cincinnati, where he’s scheduled to speak at a convention of customer service professionals, he checks into the Fregoli Hotel. There, he is amazed to discover a possible escape from his desperation in the form of an unassuming Akron baked goods sales rep, Lisa, who may or may not be the love of his life. A beautifully tender and absurdly humorous dreamscape, from the brilliant minds of Charlie Kaufman (SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK ) and Duke Johnson (“Community” episode, Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas), this stop-motion animation wonder features the vocal cast of Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Noonan and David Thewlis and a stirring strings-based score by Carter Burwell. The darkly comedic and surreal stop-motion journey of a man’s long night of the soul, ANOMALISA confirms Charlie Kaufman’s place amongst the most important of American filmmakers, and announces Duke Johnson as a major creative force.
