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Let's Talk About 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'

If there's one filmmaker who's managed to steer fully clear of the Hollywood plot recycling bin it's Wes Anderson. That guy's movies are almost always original, thoughtful and delightfully odd. For his next picture, "The Grand Budapest Hotel," he's employed a cavalcade of thespian players while still managing to keep most of the film's plot details at an absolutely maddening minimum ... until now, that is.

Thanks in part to some excellent detective work by the crew at Indie Wire, we've now pieced together enough information to think about making a reservation at the "Budapest Hotel."

First of all, the "logline" for the film (via Screen Daily) goes like so: "'The Grand Budapest Hotel' tells of a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars and his friendship with a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting, the battle for an enormous family fortune and the slow and then sudden upheavals that transformed Europe during the first half of the 20th century."

The film, which was inspired by old Europe movies like "To Be or Not to Be" and "Shop Around the Corner," has now been acquired for distribution by Fox Searchlight, which he worked with on "The Darjeeling Limited" and "The Fantastic Mr. Fox," and might just see release in 2013 instead of next year as originally intended.

Among the heavy cast, it'll be Ralph Fiennes who portrays the centrally oh-so-refined concierge Mr. Gustave, while youngster Tony Revolori will be his little footsteps follower. Meanwhile, Saoirse Ronan was tapped to star as an Irish guest — her first turn using her natural accent on-camera, she claimed — of the place, and Angela Lasbury's role will be teeny tiny as a "woman of mystery" (go figure) who notches in about five minutes of screen time. Also "tiny" is the role of Jude Law, whose mouth is slightly bigger and spilled that the movie shifts between two time periods, the '30s and the '60s, with his in the latter, groovier era. And Jeff Goldblum's role in the film is said to have been inspired by Sigmund Freud and Jack Benny.

Phew! That's a lot of information to digest in one sitting, but no matter. The film will be what it is, just like every other Wes Anderson original of note.

Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Bob Balaban and Adrien Brody will also star in the flick.

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