Wes Anderson's Asteroid City was shot on Kodak 35mm film

Director of photography Robert Yeoman revealed that Wes Anderson’s upcoming film ‘Asteroid City’ was shot on KODAK 35mm color/B&W film in an interview with Kodak where he goes into detail about the behind-the-scenes process of shooting the film. It is one of several recent films shot on Kodak film that are coming out this year, including Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ and Martin Scorsese’s first Western ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.

Yeoman said that an ARRICAM ST 35mm film camera was used and that inspiration for the visual feel of the film came from ‘Bad Day at Black Rock’ and ‘Paris,Texas’. To shoot, Yeoman used the same combination of 35mm films stocks he had deployed on ‘The French Dispatch’ the Kodak VISION3 200T Color Negative Film 5213 for the movie’s colour sequences and EASTMAN DOUBLE-X Black & White Negative Film 5222 for the B&W scenes.

Yeoman said that he and Anderson ‘both love the innate texture and color of the filmed image, which can be hard, sometimes impossible, to achieve digitally. Film grain was an important element for this production, particularly for the B&W scenes’ and that on this film they ‘were essentially shooting in a desert with the sun overhead and a lot of contrast.’

Wes Anderson's Asteroid City was shot on KODAK 35mm color/B&W film, Scarlett Johansson

Credit: Universal Pictures

‘We really wanted a natural look, and no stylized lighting. Wes pushed me to embrace frontal and overhead sunlight, and the town exteriors were all shot in natural light. In the past I have always preferred to back- or side-light the actors, and if the light was overhead and harsh, would be inclined to silk it. But I don’t think we ever used a silk in this film.’

This is Yeoman’s eleventh live-action feature collaboration with Anderson shot on analog film, following the ‘Royal Tenenbaums’, ‘Moonrise Kingdom’, ‘The French Dispatch’ and ‘The Great Budapest Hotel’ (for which Yeoman was Oscar and BAFTA-nominated for).

The film features an extensive cast of big-name Hollywood actors, including Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Ed Norton, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Margot Robbie and Jeff Goldblum. It is scheduled for a limited release in New York City and Los Angeles in the United States on 16 June 2023, before expanding to a wide release on 23 June 2023.