Asteroid City: What new Wes Anderson film is about, run time and full cast list

The latest Wes Anderson film has been released in cinemas today (Friday, June 23), with a star-studded cast.

Sci-fi romantic comedy Asteroid City follows a writer producing his world-famous play, about a grieving father who travels with his tech-obsessed family to small rural Asteroid City to compete in a junior stargazing event.

While there, he has his world view disrupted forever. Confusingly, the film is about a play, within a TV show... within a film. As expected, it tackles themes of grief, love and the cosmos -and is bound to elicit some existentialism from us mere humans.

Join our WhatsApp Top Stories and Breaking News group by clicking this link

Directed by Anderson and co-written by himself and Roman Coppola, the film is set in 1955, in a small town at the intersection of Nevada, California and Arizona. Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jason Schwartzman and Maya Hawke are among the stars of the cast.

Asteroid City premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May this year, and competed for the Palme d’Or prize. Meanwhile Jarvis Cocker, who has a cameo in the film, contributed two original songs to the film's soundtrack.

‘Dear Alien (Who Art In Heaven)’ and ‘You Can’t Wake Up If You Don’t Fall Asleep’ were both produced by former Pulp guitarist Richard Hawley. Alexandre Desplat, who has previously worked with Anderson on the likes of Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Grand Budapest Hotel, created Asteroid City's musical score.

Here is the film's run time and the cast list in full.

The film's run time is one hour and 44 minutes.

Jason Schwartzman is Augie Steenbeck, a war photographer and Woodrow's dad.

Jake Ryan plays Woodrow Steenbeck, a Junior Stargazer winner

Scarlett Johansson is Midge Campbell, an actress and