JASON SCHWARTZMAN WRITES THE DARJEELING LIMITED

Jason Schwartzman was part of the writing trio with Roman Coppola and director Wes Anderson.

While filming Marie Antoinette in Paris, Jason Schwartzman moonlighted writing the screenplay for The Darjeeling Limited with his friend director Wes Anderson.

At one point Wes was renting the same apartment Kirsten Dunst occupied while playing the doomed Queen of Versailles. Jason who plays the youngest of three brothers in the film talks about how the project began.

“My involvement with this film began in 2004 in Paris where I was working at the time and Wes was living with me. He began to talk about this idea he had for a movie about three brothers on a train and traveling through India.”

As serendipity would have it, Jason’s cousin Roman Coppola was in town working on Marie Antoinette with his sister Sofia and joined the writing team.

“I don’t know how it happened but at some point I realized we were working on a movie together. It wasn’t really formal and then Roman began writing it too. And the three of us, I know this sounds corny and picturesque but we wrote a lot of the movie in French cafes late at night.”

While in Paris, Wes Anderson filmed a prequel short Hotel Chavelier starring Jason and Natalie Portman which is available only on the internet. For further inspiration the threesome continued writing while traveling aboard a train in India.