This 2023 brought us not one, but two Wes Anderson projects. After the Asteroid Citythe Texan filmmaker brings us The wonderful story of Henry Sugar, an adaptation starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Ralph Fiennes. Here all the details.
What will it be about? The wonderful story of Henry Sugar?
“A beloved story by Roald Dahl about a rich man who learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes and then sets out to master that skill so he can cheat at bets“, can be read in the official synopsis offered by Netflix.
The film will be based on a short story written by Roald Dahlauthor of classics such as Charlie and the chocolate factory either Matilda, both also adapted to film. In fact, Wes Anderson himself had already brought another of Dahl’s works to the big screen: The fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), about a cunning fox who manages to feed his family.
However, something that will make this adaptation unique is that Anderson will not limit himself to telling the story of Henry Sugar, but will also take the opportunity to tell more stories from Dahl’s literary universe., having a particular element as a connector. This is what the director revealed to the magazine Les Cahiers du Cinéma (via Playlist):
“I don’t even know if you can call it a feature film. It has the same length, but there will be four different stories. In The French chronicle [película del 2021 que dirigió]the stories were designed to form a movie, here [en Henry Sugar] They are completely separate. The only connection is that they are Roald Dahl stories and that he appears in all four parts as the character played by Ralph Fiennes. It is made with a narrative method that, as far as I know, does not exist in any other film. “I won’t explain it, you will understand when you see the result.”
Cast and production team
In addition to having Ralph Fiennes (The menu) playing Roald Dahl, Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness) will be in charge of giving life to the titular Henry Sugar. The rest of the cast will be made up of Dev Patel (The legend of the green knight), Ben Kingsley (Daliland), Richard Ayoade (The souvenir: Part 2) and Rupert Friend (Asteoid City).
Wes Anderson not only sat in the director’s chair, but was also responsible for the script. For the rest of the production team there are old collaborators of Anderson such as Robert D. Yeomanin charge of photography, with whom he worked, for example, in The Grand Budapest Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom; Adam Stockhausenproduction designer, whose work was present in films such as Asteroid City and dog island; and Robin Baytonhead of the music department, with whom Anderson worked on The French chronicle,.
When it premieres The wonderful story of Henry Sugar?
The wonderful story of Henry Sugar will be available from September 27, 2023 on the platform streaming Netflix.
The other three Wes Anderson shorts, based on the work of Roald Dahl, will be The Swan (coming to Netflix on September 28), The Ratcatcher (September 29) and poison (September 30th).