Welcome to Wilson-Brothers.Com, your number 1 fan resource for the talented and gorgeous Wilson Brothers, Luke, Owen and Andrew. Here you can catch up on the latest news on the brothers as well as a section devoted to each one separately. We have a large amount of content and are adding more all the time so please come back again soon. If you have any questions about the site or it's content then please contact the admin.. thanks x
Do you want to find out more about your favourite Wilson.. well just click on the related image below to take you to their own section of the site..



OWEN  LUKE  ANDREW  GALLERY  FANS  SITE/ONLINE  LATEST


 
launching pad with rocket
Quartet Of Film Newcomers On Launching Pad With 'Rocket'
By Gary Arnold

Whimsical feature is first for college pals.

"I guess D.C. doesn't have a lot of nice hotels," quips Owen C. Wilson. He knows better. The most charismatic newcomer in a fresh new feature titled "Bottle Rocket," Mr. Wilson is indulging an amiable dig at Columbia Pictures. Evidently, the company systematically spared expenses while arranging a two-week promotional tour for a "Rocket" delegation.

Washington was the final stop for that personable delegation of four, which included three Wilsons. Owen, 26, was accompanied by brothers Andrew, 31, and Luke, 24, who also have roles in the movie, an offbeat caper comedy that opens exclusively at the Cineplex Odeon Dupont Circle today. The party was completed by director Wes Anderson, 26, who collaborated with Owen on the screenplay. A very savvy quartet, they were suitably bemused by the second-class status of their downtown but cramped and unstylish accommodations - no fleabag, but no Ritz either.

"This sums up the trip," Owen observes. "We have had some excellent views of better hotels."

This penny-pinching send-off had its puzzling aspects. For starters, Columbia would appear to have a modestly exploitable novelty in "Bottle Rocket," which adds to the sum of promising whimsy that has emerged recently from graduates of the University of Texas at Austin.

First Richard Linklatter's "Slacker," then Robert Rodriguez's "El Mariachi." Now "Bottle Rocket," which grew out of an undergraduate friendship between Owen Wilson and Mr. Anderson, who met in a creative-writing class in their junior year. Mr. Wilson graduated from a military school in New Mexico after being expelled in the 10th grade from St. Mark's, a Dallas prep school, which welcomed the prodigal back while lending its grounds to a few sequences in "Bottle Rocket."

The film was shot for the most part in the Dallas area, where the Wilsons and Mr. Anderson grew up. Luke Wilson, later a St. Mark's graduate, dryly notes, "Owen didn't leave much of a legacy."

Mr. Anderson directed a preliminary version of "Bottle Rocket" in 1992 after he and Owen Wilson completed their script. A 13-minute sample, the first draft consisted of two early sequences. "It wasn't meant as a short," he explains. "We intended to keep shooting piecemeal as we raised a few thousand dollars at a time."

The eventual feature, completed on a slim but adequate professional budget of $6 million, was made under the auspices of Hollywood mentors James L. Brooks and Polly Platt.

Someone at Columbia might have been expected to recognize the risk factor involved in providing young humorists with generous ammunition. The "Bottle Rocket" Economy Tour easily could enrich the annals of movie comedy in some future collaboration between Mr. Wilson and Mr. Anderson, who remain close friends and an active writing team.

Owen and Luke have principal roles in the movie, cast respectively as a criminally inclined loose cannon called Dignan and an amorously inclined pal named Anthony. The latter is susceptible to Dignan's petty-theft schemes, but he has an excuse of sorts: He's just been released from a sanitarium.

Happily, Anthony finds a sound alternative to crime in a Mexican housekeeper, Inez, played by Lumi Cavazos, the leading lady of "Like Water for Chocolate." Their romance flourishes serendipitously, despite a total language barrier, at the motel where Inez works and Anthony "hides out," sort of, with Dignan and a third amateur felon, a rich but melancholy misfit named Bob, played by Robert Musgrave.

Andrew Wilson has a minor role as Bob's contemptuous older brother. The three feckless young crooks are ultimately humored and then victimized by a treacherous pro, James Caan as a professional burglar called Mr. Henry. Now relocated to Los Angeles and pursuing an acting career along with his younger brothers, Andrew was the only member of the inner circle with a regular job when "Bottle Rocket" was a long way from realization back in 1991.

"I was making documentaries in Dallas," he explains. "The principal project was a campaign biographical film for Ross Perot. Kind of like 'The Man from Hope,' but it turned out to be an exercise in futility.

"Perot didn't like certain things we had done, especially interviews that were shot in the style Warren Beatty used for 'Reds,' with the subjects sharply lit against dark backgrounds. He thought it made his wife, Margo, look bad - as if her head kind of floated in space. He dropped out of the 1992 race while we were still trying to reattach her head."

Despite this artistic-political setback, Andrew Wilson had become familiar with several film crews and technicians. He became an indispensable go-between for brother Owen and director Anderson, who had no production experience or connections. Andrew also stockpiled 16mm film stock and useful pieces of equipment left over from his documentary projects. This foresight gave "Bottle Rocket" enough resources to get under way as an amateur beau geste.

The Wilsons, whose father, Robert, once managed the public television station in Dallas - he now runs his own advertising agency - also had a useful acquaintance on the fringes of the movie industry, L.M. "Kit" Carson. A maverick filmmaker of a generation ago, Mr. Carson enjoyed considerable cult success in the late 1960s with a resourceful low-budget comedy, "David Holtzman's Diary." His professional career proved spotty at best, but he and his wife were regulars at the Sundance Film Festival.

The Carsons were instrumental in arranging a Sundance showing of the 13-minute "Bottle Rocket." They also relayed the screenplay to independent producer Barbara Boyle, who then recruited Mr. Brooks and Miss Platt, who have been associates since collaborating on the Oscar-winning "Terms of Endearment." Owen Wilson emerges as the immediate performing discovery of "Bottle Rocket." His excitable, delusionary Dignan should be a screwball sensation with young audiences. Owen is also the first of the brothers to get a prompt casting call from Hollywood: He has a role in the new Jim Carrey vehicle "Cable Guy."



<<BACK