Wes Anderson goes back to 1955 with Asteroid City trailer

Wes Anderson has a new movie on the horizon — and this time, he’s taking viewers to the desert of the past.

The new trailer for Asteroid City, which Focus Features unveiled on Wednesday morning, takes place in a fictional American desert town in 1955, where the convention of Boy Scouts-like organization called Junior Stargazers/Space Cadets is about to be disrupted by “world-changing events.” In other words, an alien shows up — or at least, some of these characters think it does.

The cast for Asteroid City combines longtime Anderson veterans like Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, and Edward Norton with newcomers like Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, and Margot Robbie.

Hanks plays the father-in-law of Schwartzman’s character, who is escorting his many children on this desert field trip. He gets distracted by a beautiful actress (Johansson), while his children become obsessed with the idea of life on other planets. As the wise elder statesman figure, Hanks seems to be filling the role often played by Bill Murray in Anderson’s past films.

In its desert setting, interest in aliens, and exploration of filmmaking technology, Asteroid City actually seems to have more than a little in common with Jordan Peele’s Nope — but the full extent of these comparisons will have to wait until we can see the whole movie.

Although the screenplay is credited solely to Anderson, the director’s longtime collaborator Roman Coppola also has a story credit.

Asteroid City Poster

Focus Features The poster for Wes Anderson’s ‘Asteroid City.’

Asteroid City is set to hit select theaters on June 16 before a wider release on June 23. Watch the trailer above.

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