Wes Anderson Explains E-Mail Directing for 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox'

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Although director Wes Anderson has never intended to be "an in-box auteur" for "The Fantastic Mr. Fox", he ended up being one as he gave direction to his staff via e-mail instead of being on the set in person. Discussing about the matter with Chris Lee of Los Angeles Times, the 40-year-old filmmaker reasoned that he "didn't want to be at Three Mills Studios for two years."

On the complaints thrown by director of photography Tristan Oliver over his lack of knowledge about stop-motion, he responded, "It's not the most pleasant thing to force somebody to do it the way they don't want to do it." He added, "In Tristan's case, what I was telling him was, 'You can't use the techniques that you've learned to use. I'm going to make your life more difficult by demanding a certain approach.' "

"The simple reality is," he further continued, "the movie would not be the way I wanted it if I just did it the way people were accustomed to doing it. I realized this is an opportunity to do something nobody's ever seen before. I want to see it. I don't want afterward to say, 'I could have gone further with this.' "

"The Fantastic Mr. Fox" revolves around Mr. Fox who steals chickens, ducks, and turkeys from three mean, stinky and wealthy farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean, to feed his family. When the farmers had enough with his action, they are determined to kill him, endangering not only Mr. Fox's beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground and with not enough food to go around, he comes up with a plan. He gets the animals band together to fight back.

Based on the novel by author Roald Dahl, this animated feature comes from director/producer/writer Wes Anderson and animator Mark Gustafson. Scheduled to open the 53rd Times BFI London Film Festival on October 14, the movie is set to open wide in the U.S. November 13. Among those contributing for the characters' voices are George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Willem Dafoe.