A new Wes Anderson movie is always special, symmetrical gift. The French Dispatch, for instance — starring Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet and Lea Seydoux — was a perfectly framed series of bittersweet human stories. The director’s new project Asteroid City, said to be “a poetic meditation on the meaning of life”, sees him reunite with some of his usual coterie, including Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman. Know what else is poetic? Nudity! And Asteroid City has enough of it for it to have garnered a risky R rating.

Yep, his next film — due for release this summer — has been given the same US rating as most horror films, for one sole reason: “brief, graphic nudity”. The French Dispatch featured, we should note, a fully nude Lea Seydoux, and also included a scattering of swear words, meaning it too was rated R in the US. But as we speak, Wes and his studio seems to be appealing the verdict.

Beyond that, who’s made the cast list? Where is this “meditation” on life happening exactly? And when the hell can we watch it? Here’s what we’ve gathered so far.

The official plotline for the film, from the studio which produced it, reads: “In 1955, students and parents from across the country gather for scholarly competition, rest/recreation, comedy, drama, and romance at a Junior Stargazer convention held in a fictional American desert town.”

As we know, Wes has a tendency to recast actors he is fond of, so don’t be surprised if you see some familiar faces in there. But this time around, the cast has been described as being "larger than most other Anderson films that are ensemble in nature."

There are also some new stars in the mix. Despite being one of Hollywood’s most legendary actors, and the kind of affable presence you’d expect in a Wes movie, Tom Hanks will be making his debut in the Anderson Cinematic Universe in this. According to the Hollywood Reporter, he’ll be joined by Margot Robbie, who’s on an auteur hot streak right now: she’s worked with Scorsese already, and has a certain project with Greta Gerwig in the works. They’ll be joined by Wes regulars Jason Schwartzman and Ed Norton, as well as Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Wright, Bryan Cranston, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, Grace Edwards, Aristou Meehan, Sophia Lillis, Ethan Lee, Jeff Goldblum, Rita Wilson, "and many more."

Do we think we’ll get an appearance from Timothée Chalamet in Wes’s new movie? It’s possible, but probably a brief appearance: we imagine he was knee-deep in Dune commitments for much of the film’s shooting schedule.

The movie began shooting in 2021 in a town called Chinchón, 50km outside of Madrid. Sets built in Chinchón resembled those used in filming old westerns, so at least we know cinema’s master aesthete has a solid vision for this one.

It was announced that Asteroid City will hit select theatres in the US on 16 June, before rolling out wide on 23 June. That slot makes a world premiere at Cannes Film Festival, just like The French Dispatch, extremely likely.