The New York Post, has an interview today with Wes Anderson about The Darjeeling Limited and "Hotel Chevalier."
HW: Your short film, Hotel Chevalier starring Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman, screened prior to the Darjeeling. Will it be screened in theaters before the feature? What were the workings behind that?
WA: The short, we made about a year before the movie. At first I wrote this scene and then I kind of figured out that I wanted Jason in it. And I thought, "I think this is the same character" [from Darjeeling], because we were working on the script already for the movie. It was already kind of linked. Then as I was finishing writing the short we decided that they [the films] definitely go together. Then [reenacting doubt], we'll see if Natalie Portman wants do it? She was the person we had in mind. Then she said yes. So I said, "Let's just make this right now." So I just paid for it and made it right then.
HW: In between script sessions for Darjeeling?
WA: We kept working on the script. It's a weird thing to do. There wasn't a game plan. Yes, they go together. Yes, to understand why Natalie Portman appears near the end of the movie, you really should've seen the short. It's not really a very commercially sound concept. So, once it was all done then I was faced with [imitating himself], "We can show it [Hotel] in front of it [Darjeeling]?" But then, "I don't know if I'd like for everyone to see it in front of it." And really, I kind of feel like, "It's nice if you see it [Hotel]. Then you see the movie the next day."
HW: So, like your directing style, the Hotel Chevalier/Darjeeling Limited package is a multi-varied concept?
WA: In the end we try to make it that one person can see it in one way, and another person can see it in another way. We'll have the short [downloadable] on iTunes. And then maybe at a certain point we'll add the short in with the movie in the theaters; and it'll be [available] on the DVD. You can watch the movie and then the short, or the short and then the movie. It'll just be in different ways. It wasn't very preconceived. In the end I just felt [pauses], "I don't want to force it. Let's just see what it is. Let's just see what it wants to be."
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