February 21, 1996 –
The feature-length directorial debut of Wes Anderson, Bottle Rocket, starring Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Andrew Wilson, Robert Musgrave, Lumi Cavazos, and James Caan, and produced by James L. Brooks, was released on this date
James L. Brooks insisted that major work needed to be done on the originally submitted script, so he had Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson (the screenwriters,) flown to Los Angeles and set up in an office on one hundred dollars a day. Having never flown first class in his life, Wilson tried to exchange his prearranged first class plane ticket for a coach ticket, hoping to pocket the difference in cash instead. When the airline told him the money would just go back to the credit card of who bought the ticket, he gave in and flew first class for the first time.
The Haus of Dcaligari 