The story of 'Bottle Rocket' begins in 1992 at the University of Texas in Austin, where Wes Anderson first met Owen Wilson in a playwriting class. The pair instantly bonded and soon began developing a 12-minute script about a trio of hapless criminals, played by Wilson, his brother Luke and their friend Robert Musgrave. Two years later the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to little fanfare – but crucially it did catch the attention of Hollywood producer James Brooks, who financed a feature-length adaptation which Martin Scorsese hailed as one of the ten best films of the 1990s. Shot in monochrome 16mm, the earlier version of 'Bottle Rocket' is notable for its striking aesthetic which Anderson has since discarded in favour of the vivid, pastel-hued visual style he is known and loved for today.