Wes Anderson's 'Asteroid City' sets on display at Fondazione Prada in Milan

Fondazione Prada's Nord gallery in Milan hosts 'Wes Anderson – Asteroid City: Exhibition,' featuring original sets from the director's eleventh film, 'Asteroid City.' The immersive show recreates the fictional 1950s desert town, complete with a meteorite crater, an astronomical observatory, and period-accurate props like an Olivetti Lettera 44 typewriter, vintage clothing, candy, and even discarded popsicle sticks. Designed by Oscar-winning production designer Adam Stockhausen (The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2014), the sets were built on location in Chinchón, near Madrid, Spain. Visitors enter past vending machines dispensing snacks, cigarettes, and sodas—one of which also sells ammunition, hinting at underlying tension. The exhibition includes a telephone booth, colorful billboards, flags, road signs, and a model train. Anderson and Stockhausen drew inspiration from 1950s films such as 'Bad Day at Black Rock' (1955), 'Ace in the Hole' (1951), and Billy Wilder's 'Kiss Me, Stupid,' as well as Frank Capra's 1934 New Deal classic 'It Happened One Night.' The film premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.