Wes Anderson will direct an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Wonderful Stories of Henry Sugar. The project will feature four short films titled “Henry Sugar”, “Ratcatcher”, “The Swan”, and “Poison”.
“Henry Sugar” premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and received a 4-minute standing ovation. In an interview with Variety, the acclaimed director spoke about his latest project, and staying true to the source material. “I don’t want even the artist to modify their work,” Anderson said. “I understand the motivation for it, but I sort of am in the school where, when the piece of work is done and the audience participates in it, we know it — I sort of think what’s done is done. And certainly, no one besides the author should be modifying the work — he’s dead.”
Anderson is no stranger to the works of Roald Dahl, having previously adapted Fantastic Mr. Fox into an incredibly successful and visually charming film. Fantastic Mr. Fox, which featured George Clooney and Meryl Streep, as well as frequent collaborators Willem Dafoe, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, and Bill Murray. Noah Baumbach, who recently co-wrote Barbie with Greta Gerwig, helped Anderson write the script for the film. Fantastic Mr. Fox received two Academy Award Nominations, for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score.
The Wonderful Stories of Henry Sugar will feature Rupert Friend, who recently appeared in Anderson’s Asteroid City and previously in the video-game-turned-film Hitman: Agent 47. Friend confirmed that he will have roles in “The Swan” and “Ratcatcher”. Alongside him will be Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel and Richard Ayoade. Each actor will star in around 2 of the films, with Fiennes appearing in all four.
Anderson also spoke about the ongoing writers’ and actors’ strikes, saying “An equitable deal has got to be reached for anybody to go forward. People are suffering.” The Writer’s Guild of America has been on strike since May, and the actors of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists joined the picket line in July. There have been disparaging comments from studio executives, such as Disney’s Bob Iger, which have been slammed by fans and actors as completely out-of-touch.
Henry Sugar, and the rest of the films in the anthology will be available for streaming on Netflix.
Source: Variety