In an effort to appeal to a more "indie" audience, CNN took a page out of Wes Anderson's playbook to promote tonight's State of the Union address. The ad features character introductions straight out of The Royal Tenenbaums, a description of the Capitol Building that mimics Steve Zissou's (Bill Murray) explanation of his boat in The Life Aquatic and a few quick zooms that allude to some scenes in The Grand Budapest Hotel.
The music in the promo, however, doesn't even come close to the methodical scores of Alexandre Desplat, who regularly collaborates with Anderson, but it does ape the director's frequent use of classic rock songs with a hysterical slow motion shot of Bobby Jindal set to Nico's "These Days."
In any case, it's good to see a news network as big as CNN paying tribute to a filmmaker like Wes Anderson—even if they're cheaply ripping him off.