# The Phoenician Scheme
**The Phoenician Scheme** is a 2025 comedy-thriller film directed by [Wes Anderson](https://www.edgepedia.org/wes-anderson), written by Anderson with a story co-written by [Roman Coppola](https://www.edgepedia.org/roman-coppola), and starring [Benicio del Toro](https://www.edgepedia.org/benicio-del-toro), Mia Threapleton, and Michael Cera. Focus Features acquired worldwide distribution rights, giving the film a limited domestic release on May 30, 2025 and a wide expansion on June 6, with Universal Pictures International handling international distribution.[1](https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/the-phoenician-scheme_announcement) It premiered in Competition at the 2025 Festival de Cannes, Anderson's fourth film in that selection.[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2025/the-phoenician-scheme-a-father-daughter-duo-on-a-spy-mission-by-wes-anderson/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writers | Directed by Wes Anderson; script by Anderson with story co-written by Roman Coppola, his fifth screenplay with Anderson[1](https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/the-phoenician-scheme_announcement) • [2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2025/the-phoenician-scheme-a-father-daughter-duo-on-a-spy-mission-by-wes-anderson/) |
| Principal cast | Benicio del Toro as Zsa-zsa Korda, Mia Threapleton as Sister Liesl, Michael Cera as Bjorn Lund[1](https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/the-phoenician-scheme_announcement) |
| Premiere | In Competition at the 2025 Festival de Cannes[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2025/the-phoenician-scheme-a-father-daughter-duo-on-a-spy-mission-by-wes-anderson/) |
| Release | Limited US release May 30, 2025; wide June 6; streaming July 8, 2025[1](https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/the-phoenician-scheme_announcement) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_phoenician_scheme) |
| Runtime | Approximately 97 minutes (BBFC certification)[4](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-phoenician-scheme-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmdi5mdy4) |
| Budget and gross | Estimated $30,000,000 budget; $40,566,381 worldwide, of which $19,555,015 in the US and Canada[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30840798/) |
| Filming | Babelsberg Studios, Potsdam, Germany[6](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/476624/) • [5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30840798/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story is set in 1950 and follows Zsa-zsa Korda, a notorious plutocrat-entrepreneur described as one of the richest men in Europe. As the vast business venture that has defined his decades-long career nears completion, Korda lives through a sixth attempt on his life and is forced to name an heir: Liesl, the daughter he has been estranged from for six years, who is a nun.[7](https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/the-phoenician-scheme) • [1](https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/the-phoenician-scheme_announcement) • [2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2025/the-phoenician-scheme-a-father-daughter-duo-on-a-spy-mission-by-wes-anderson/) With Liesl and the family tutor Bjorn Lund, Korda sets off on a globetrotting adventure to salvage the deal.[7](https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/the-phoenician-scheme)
The scheme at the center of the film is a plan to build a dam, tunnel, and canal in a fictional territory called Modern Greater Independent Phoenicia, in coordinates that roughly correspond to Saudi Arabia.[8](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-05-29/phoenician-scheme-review-benicio-del-toro-scarlett-johansson-wes-anderson-jeffrey-wright) Because of price-fixing sabotage by his enemies, Korda must convince the deal's other parties to accept lower returns, using tactics that run from barked threats to sports bets to a gift basket of grenades. The counterparties include a prince, two American industrialists, a nightclub impresario, a sailor, and a cousin-fiancée.[8](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-05-29/phoenician-scheme-review-benicio-del-toro-scarlett-johansson-wes-anderson-jeffrey-wright)
### Cast and characters
Benicio del Toro plays Zsa-zsa Korda; Mia Threapleton plays Sister Liesl, his daughter and a nun; and [Michael Cera](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-cera) plays Bjorn Lund, their tutor.[1](https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/the-phoenician-scheme_announcement) The supporting cast includes [Tom Hanks](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-hanks) and [Bryan Cranston](https://www.edgepedia.org/bryan-cranston) as the American industrialists, Riz Ahmed as the prince, Mathieu Amalric as the nightclub impresario, Jeffrey Wright as the sailor, and Scarlett Johansson as the cousin-fiancée, along with Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, and Benedict Cumberbatch.[1](https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/the-phoenician-scheme_announcement) • [8](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-05-29/phoenician-scheme-review-benicio-del-toro-scarlett-johansson-wes-anderson-jeffrey-wright)
## Production
The film is a 2025 United States–Germany co-production, produced by American Empirical Pictures with Steven Rales of Indian Paintbrush, Jeremy Dawson, and John Peet, and filmed in Germany in association with Studio Babelsberg at Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam.[1](https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/the-phoenician-scheme_announcement) • [6](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/476624/) • [5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30840798/) The key crew reunited Anderson's regular collaborators: cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel, editing by Barney Pilling, production design by Adam Stockhausen, and music by [Alexandre Desplat](https://www.edgepedia.org/alexandre-desplat).[6](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/476624/)
Anderson has said the Korda character was inspired by his father-in-law, the Lebanese construction magnate Fouad Maalouf, who is also the film's dedicatee; the character also evokes empire-builders such as [Cecil Rhodes](https://www.edgepedia.org/cecil-rhodes) and [Ferdinand de Lesseps](https://www.edgepedia.org/ferdinand-de-lesseps).[9](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jun/17/the-phoenician-scheme-is-fantasy-it-is-also-a-remarkable-engagement-with-the-real-life-conflict-in-the-middle-east)
## Release
The film premiered in [Competition](https://www.edgepedia.org/competition) at Cannes 2025, following Anderson's Competition entries *Asteroid City*, *The French Dispatch*, and *Moonrise Kingdom*, the last of which opened the festival in 2012.[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2025/the-phoenician-scheme-a-father-daughter-duo-on-a-spy-mission-by-wes-anderson/) [Focus Features](https://www.edgepedia.org/focus-features) gave it a limited domestic release on May 30, 2025 and a wide expansion on June 6.[1](https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/the-phoenician-scheme_announcement) European rollout through Universal Pictures International arms began earlier in some markets: the United Kingdom on May 23, France and Italy on May 28, Germany and Denmark on May 29, Spain and Sweden on May 30, and Poland on June 6, 2025.[6](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/476624/) The film began streaming on July 8, 2025, and received a home-media release through [Universal Pictures Home Entertainment](https://www.edgepedia.org/universal-pictures-home-entertainment).[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_phoenician_scheme) • [7](https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/the-phoenician-scheme)
## Reception
The Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus describes the film as "a caper made with all the intricacy of a Rube Goldberg machine" that does not deviate from Wes Anderson's increasingly ornate style but delivers the formula with mannered delicacy.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_phoenician_scheme)
**Praise and criticism.** The Guardian's Cannes review found the film less visually detailed and inspired than some of Anderson's earlier work, with less screwball sympathy for the characters, but singled out a likable lead turn from Mia Threapleton as an eerie visual and aural echo of her mother, [Kate Winslet](https://www.edgepedia.org/kate-winslet); the same review criticized tiny, deadpan, almost immobile cameos by Tom Hanks, Willem Dafoe, and [Scarlett Johansson](https://www.edgepedia.org/scarlett-johansson).[10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/may/18/the-phoenician-scheme-review-mia-threapleton-shines-in-wes-andersons-muted-new-confection) A later Guardian essay took the opposite pole, calling the film possibly Anderson's worst and most profound film, and reading it as an engagement with colonial mythology and the real-life conflict in the Middle East.[9](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jun/17/the-phoenician-scheme-is-fantasy-it-is-also-a-remarkable-engagement-with-the-real-life-conflict-in-the-middle-east) The Los Angeles Times framed the film as Anderson's "art of the deal," centering on Korda's negotiation of the infrastructure contract.[8](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-05-29/phoenician-scheme-review-benicio-del-toro-scarlett-johansson-wes-anderson-jeffrey-wright)
## By the numbers
The film carried an estimated budget of $30,000,000 and grossed $40,566,381 worldwide, with $19,555,015 of that in the United States and Canada.[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30840798/) Its theatrical window was short by recent standards: the wide release on June 6, 2025 was followed by streaming availability on July 8, roughly a month later.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_phoenician_scheme) The BBFC certified the film at approximately 97 minutes.[4](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-phoenician-scheme-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmdi5mdy4)
## Themes and title
The title refers to the deal Korda is trying to complete, which the Guardian's Cannes review called "absurdly opaque and pointless," a plan by a plutocrat-entrepreneur to dominate a region.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/may/18/the-phoenician-scheme-review-mia-threapleton-shines-in-wes-andersons-muted-new-confection) The setting is a parallel-universe Middle East in 1950 in which decolonization, the Holocaust, and the world wars appear not to have taken place, with history stalled in a kind of perpetual belle époque; the entire Levant forms a single nominally sovereign territory, Modern Greater Independent Phoenicia, named after the ancient civilization once inhabiting what would now be Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel.[9](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jun/17/the-phoenician-scheme-is-fantasy-it-is-also-a-remarkable-engagement-with-the-real-life-conflict-in-the-middle-east) The Guardian essay reads this fantasy setting as the film's way of engaging with the real Middle East conflict, placing Korda's infrastructure imperialism against colonial mythology.[9](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jun/17/the-phoenician-scheme-is-fantasy-it-is-also-a-remarkable-engagement-with-the-real-life-conflict-in-the-middle-east) The film continues Anderson's exploration of family ties seen in *The Royal Tenenbaums*, *The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou*, and *The Darjeeling Limited*, and is his fifth screenplay co-written with Roman Coppola.[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2025/the-phoenician-scheme-a-father-daughter-duo-on-a-spy-mission-by-wes-anderson/)
## References
1. [Focus Features Reteams with Wes Anderson and Indian Paintbrush for The Phoenician Scheme, Focus Features](https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/the-phoenician-scheme_announcement)
2. [The Phoenician Scheme: a father-daughter duo on a spy mission, by Wes Anderson, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2025/the-phoenician-scheme-a-father-daughter-duo-on-a-spy-mission-by-wes-anderson/)
3. [The Phoenician Scheme, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_phoenician_scheme)
4. [The Phoenician Scheme, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-phoenician-scheme-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmdi5mdy4)
5. [The Phoenician Scheme (2025), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30840798/)
6. [The Phoenician Scheme, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/476624/)
7. [The Phoenician Scheme, Universal Pictures At Home](https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/the-phoenician-scheme)
8. ['The Phoenician Scheme' review: Wes Anderson's art of the deal, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-05-29/phoenician-scheme-review-benicio-del-toro-scarlett-johansson-wes-anderson-jeffrey-wright)
9. [The Phoenician Scheme is fantasy. It is also a remarkable engagement with the real-life conflict in the Middle East, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jun/17/the-phoenician-scheme-is-fantasy-it-is-also-a-remarkable-engagement-with-the-real-life-conflict-in-the-middle-east)
10. [The Phoenician Scheme review – Mia Threapleton shines in Wes Anderson's muted new confection, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/may/18/the-phoenician-scheme-review-mia-threapleton-shines-in-wes-andersons-muted-new-confection)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 2025–2026 films › Action, spy, and survival thrillers*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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