Asteroid City (2023) on Netflix
PG-1320231h 44mComedyDramaRomance
War photographer Augie Steenbeck arrives in Asteroid City for a Junior Stargazer convention with his son and three daughters. Their car has broken down. A spacecraft appears above the crater.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb6.4/10147,098 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes75%
Trailer
Plot summary
A junior stargazer convention draws families and their inventions to a desert town known for a meteor crater, in a version of 1955 where nuclear tests happen regularly nearby. Among the arrivals is Augie Steenbeck, a war photojournalist whose car has failed, with his children: Woodrow, who is to be honored, and three younger daughters. Augie has kept their mother's death from them, and Stanley Zak, his father-in-law, urges him to tell them. Midge Campbell, an actress staying in the next cabin, is there for her daughter Dinah. The town's story is told as a play by Conrad Earp, framed by a television program about the production. On the first night a spacecraft appears above the crater.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Asteroid City (2023)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The actress Scarlett Johansson was paid $4,131 a week for her two months of work on the film Asteroid City.
- The MPA first rated Asteroid City R over a "blink-and-you-could-miss-it" scene in which Scarlett Johansson appears naked, but Focus Features appealed and the film was re-rated PG-13, the first time the MPA lowered a rating on appeal over "graphic content".
- Bill Murray was originally cast as the motel manager but dropped out after catching COVID-19, so Steve Carell took the part, making it the first Wes Anderson film since Bottle Rocket (1996) without a Murray performance. After recovering, Murray flew to the set in Spain and was given the role of Tab Whitney in a promotional trailer.
- Michael Cera and Jeff Goldblum entered negotiations to star in February 2021, when the project was still described as being about a "group of brainy teenagers". Cera did not end up joining the cast, but went on to star in Anderson's next film.
- On the Spanish shoot the cast and crew were "all bubbled together in a hotel, which was an old monastery", according to cast member Fisher Stevens, who called it "the wildest cast since The Bridge on the River Kwai".
