Anatole ‘Zsa-zsa’ Korda (Benicio del Toro) is an international businessman and a maverick in the fields of armaments and aviation, and among the richest men in Europe. It’s 1950, and Korda has survived 6 plane crashes and 3 ex-wives, and has 10 children—9 boys and 1 daughter. Korda’s latest business venture is the Korda Land and Sea Phoenician Infrastructure Scheme, his biggest and most important project, which he’s spent the last 30 years working on. It involves building a Trans-Basin Hydroelectric Embankment (aka dam), a Trans-Desert Inland Waterway (aka canal), and a Trans-Mountain Locomotive Tunnel (aka train in a tunnel), and making use of an Indentured Workforce to do so. Many of Korda’s past ventures have upset the board of Bureaucrats, swindling their banks, avoiding their tariffs, and provoking either war or peace to purposely disrupt their agendas. Now it’s time for them to get their revenge and sabotage Korda’s project. The Bureaucrats manipulate the markets to raise the price of bashable rivets and related building materials sky high, creating a massive gap in the funding that Korda had raised for the Phoenician Scheme. Now he must go back to his partners and trick them into agreeing to new terms that will cover this gap before the deadline to sign the deal expires.

After his latest brush with death, Korda decides to appoint his daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton), who’s about to take her vows as a nun, as the sole heir to his estate, and manager of his affairs. She hasn’t seen her father in over 6 years, and still questions as to whether he was responsible for her mother’s death. But after Korda details his Phoenician Scheme, and lays out the plan to get the gap funding, she reluctantly agrees to join him. She hopes to use this trip to finally learn the truth about who murdered her mother. Korda also hires Oslo-born tutor Professor Bjorn Lund (Michael Cera) to join them on the trip, to teach them about insects and related subjects along the way.

The plan is to visit each of his five principal partners—barons of shipping, mining and railroads and titans of banking, real estate and black market syndicates—to trick them into agreeing to help cover the gap. And so the trio sets out on this quest to meet with Prince Farouk (Riz Ahmed), the Sacramento Consortium’s Leland (Tom Hanks) and Regan (Bryan Cranston), nightclub owner Marseille Bob (Mathieu Amalric), the Newark Syndicate’s Marty (Jeffrey Wright), Cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson), and Uncle Nubar (Benedict Cumberbatch). However, Korda is often met with opposition and new assassination attempts—inclduing a run-in with revolutionary militia leader Sergio (Richard Ayoade). Will Korda be able to secure the gap financing in time? Or will his luck run out? Will he even survive this trip?

Wes Anderson is a very polarizing filmmaker. His films have a very unique visual style, and a quirky way of telling stories. But what can’t be denied is the amazing cast he’s always able to assemble. The Phoenician Scheme‘s cast is stacked, many of whom have already been mentioned above, but also including Willem Dafoe, F. Murray Abraham, Rupert Friend, Bill Murray, Hope Davis, and many more. I do love the colorful and unique look of a Wes Anderson film. His visual style is impeccable and interesting, and this film is no different. Where I usually have an issue with his films, is that they are often non-sensical, choosing oddity and whimsy over a more straightforward story that is easy to follow. While I didn’t find The Phoenician Scheme to be anywhere near as weird and out there as the director’s previous venture, Asteroid City, I still had some issues with this one.

The Phoenician Scheme often feels like a series of connected vignettes, with Korda, Liesl and Bjorn visiting some new person to try to convince them to cover some of the gap funding. After this, we don’t see those characters again. In-between these shorts, we either get another plane scene to the next destination, an update on the current Gap Funding status, or (my least favorite) some black and white cutaway to Heaven where Korda’s life is on trial or being analyzed by knights, philosophers, or God (Bill Murray). I could have completely done without all of these Heaven scenes. They didn’t really add anything or make any sense to me, and just seemed to slow things down. It felt more like an excuse to be able to throw in other recognizable actors for a cameo.

I know that Wes Anderson has his die-hard fans, but I have never really been one of them (other than the visual look of his films). He often seems to try to be odd just for the sake of being odd when it comes to the actual storytelling. There has been a couple of his films that I did actually enjoy and connect with, and I can see where he’s trying to be funny and quirky in The Phoenician Scheme, with several recurring jokes and elements, but often these bits fell a bit flat for me and never made me LOL. That said, I can see how fans of his will find this film appealing. The story is certainly a lot better than Asteroid City‘s, which even his die hard fans seemed to struggle with, the visuals are creative and beautiful, and there is a catchy, unique score.

The film is presented in the square-like 1.50:1 aspect ratio, helping to not only add to Wes Anderson’s usual out-of-the-norm visual style, but also to help evoke the 1950s era of the film’s setting. Universal has released The Phoenician Scheme on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD and digital. We received the Blu-ray release for review, and it looks and sounds great. Wes Anderson is known for his bold use of color, and the picture is bright, crisp and clean, with a solid level of detail throughout. It really showcases the filmmaker’s unique vision. The Blu-ray already looks great, I can’t even imagine how the 4K release looks! Dialogue is clear, the film’s score sounds wonderful, and the Dolby Atmos track provides a nice immersive ambiance throughout.

The Blu-ray release includes a single disc, which resides in standard HD keepcase, along with a glossy carboard slipcover, and an insert containing a code to redeem for an HD Movies Anywhere-compatible digital copy of the film. The disc also contains a 4-part 15-minute behind-the-scenes featurette.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:41:00)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Anamorphic Widescreen 1.50:1
• Audio: English Dolby Atmos, English DVS (Descriptive Video Service), Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Digital (code may not be valid after 9/30/2026):

• HD Digital Copy (Movies Anywhere compatible)

Extras:
Play All, or select from:

• Behind The Phoenician Scheme (15:07)
  Four-part look at the making of the film. Play All, or select from:
  • The Cast (7:36)
    The director and cast talk about the various characters, casting the roles, and working with Wes Anderson and one another. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with director Wes Anderson (audio only), and stars Benicio del Toro (“Zsa-zsa Korda”), Mia Threapleton (“Liesl”) & Michael Cera (“Bjorn”).
  • The Airplane (1:22)
    A look at building the plane set and filming the scenes in the plane. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, animatics, and concept artwork, set to audio clips from the film.
  • Marseille Bob’s (2:04)
    A look at filming the scenes in the nightclub. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, animatics, and concept artwork.
  • Zsa-zsa’s World (4:17)
    A look at the various shoeboxes that divide up the film, the sets such as the conceptual model of Zsa-zsa’s plan, the train tracks in the tunnel, the dam, the hotel, and more. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, concept artwork, and interviews with director Wes Anderson (audio only), and stars Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton & Michael Cera.

Final Thoughts:

I have never been a big fan of Wes Anderson’s work. While I think his visual style is phenomenal, I often have an issue with his quirkier way of storytelling. While I found The Phoenician Scheme to be significantly better than his previous outing (Asteroid City), I still had some issues with oddness just for the sake of oddness. Much of this was related t the Heaven sequences which seemed to slow things down and didn’t really add anything. That said, the film features an amazing cast, and a beautiful visual canvas. Universal’s Blu-ray release looks and sounds great, but only contains a short 15-minute behind-the-scenes featurette. Fans of Anderson will likely really enjoy this film, as it feels more like a return to form for the writer/director. However, for those on the fence about a blind buy, the film is currently streaming on Peacock, if you want to check it out there first.