DOESN'T ADD UP

Director Wes Anderson Mocks Trump’s Plan to Save ‘Dying’ Hollywood

The director questioned the president over his choice of tariffs against foreign films.

Film director Wes Anderson has mocked Donald Trump’s tariff plan designed to save the American movie industry. While promoting his new movie, The Phoenician Scheme, in Cannes, Anderson questioned Trump’s vision, as reported by Variety. The film was partly shot in Germany; earlier this month Trump stated he would put a 100% tariff on movies “produced in foreign lands” after claiming the “Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death.” Trump said countries who offered tax breaks to entice American film production was a “concerted effort” to undermine Hollywood and described it as a “national security threat”. Anderson, who directed The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Royal Tenenbaums called out Trump’s mathematics. “I’ve never heard of a 100% tariff before. I’m not an expert in that area of economics, but I feel that means he’s saying he’s going to take all the money. And then what do we, what do we get? So it’s complicated to me. Can you hold up the movie in customs? It doesn’t ship that way.” The Phoenician Scheme, starring Benicio del Toro, is about a European magnate who is the subject of repeated assassination attempts.