Wes Anderson’s new short film, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, has been given an Oct. 2023 release date from Netflix.
According to Collider, Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar will release on Netflix on Oct. 13, 2023. Prior to that, the 37-minute-long film will premiere at the Venice Film Festival, which begins on Aug. 30, 2023.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is Anderson’s second Roald Dahl adaptation
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is based on a collection of short stories, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, written by Roald Dahl and published in 1977. Anderson’s film will contain four different parts and will star Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, Rupert Friend, Asa Jennings, and Richard Ayoade.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar marks Anderson’s second time adapting Dahl’s work, the first being the stop-motion animated Fantastic Mr. Fox. The film, released in 2009, is based on Dahl’s children’s novel of the same name, which was published in 1970.
The short film is also Anderson’s second release in 2023 following Asteroid City. Premiering in theaters in June before releasing digitally in July, Asteroid City features an extensive ensemble cast including Jason Schwartzman, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Steve Carell, Jeffrey Wright, Adrien Brody, and more.
Anderson almost turned Henry Sugar into a feature film
“I knew Roald Dahl since before we made Fantastic Mr. Fox,” Anderson previously told Indiewire. “I met Lindsay Dahl, his widow, when we were shooting The Royal Tenenbaums like 20 years ago. For years I wanted to do Henry Sugar. They set this story aside for me because I was friends with them. Lindsay kind of handed the torch to Luke, Dahl’s grandson. So I had this waiting for me.”
He continued, “But I really couldn’t figure out the approach. I knew what I liked in the story was the writing of it, Dahl’s words. I couldn’t find the answer, and then suddenly I did. It’s not a feature film. It’s like 37 minutes or something. But by the time I was ready to do it, the Dahl family no longer had the rights at all. They had sold the whole deal to Netflix.”
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar releases on Netflix on Oct. 13, 2023.
