Fantastic Mr. Murray

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a 2009 adventure comedy film directed by Wes Anderson, who co-wrote it with Noah Baumbach, based on the 1970 novel by Roald Dahl. It stars George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and Owen Wilson. In the stop-motion animated film, a spree of thefts led by Mr. Fox (Clooney) results in his family, and later his community, being hunted down by three farmers. Development on the project began in 2004 as a collaboration between Anderson and Henry Selick under Revolution Studios; by 2007, Revolution and Selick left for other projects. Work on Fantastic Mr. Fox was moved to 20th Century Fox, where production began in 2007 on Stage C of 3 Mills Studios in London. In addition to an original score by Alexandre Desplat, the soundtrack includes several songs from other artists. Fantastic Mr. Fox premiered as the opening film of the 53rd BFI London Film Festival on October 14, 2009, and was released in the United Kingdom on October 23 and United States on November 13. The film received critical acclaim, with praise for its humor, stop-motion animation and Anderson's direction. However, it underperformed at the box-office, grossing $47.1 million against a $40 million budget. The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score but lost both to Up. It is now considered to be among the best animated films of the 21st century.