Wes Anderson says his ‘The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar’ adaptation is only 37 minutes long

Wes Anderson
| Photo Credit: Evan Agostini

We had earlier reported that filmmaker Wes Anderson is making the screen adaptation of author Roald Dahl’s classic The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar for the streaming service Netflix. Now, the filmmaker has said that the film will be just 37 minutes long.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More is a collection of seven short stories crafted by British author Dahl for older children. The film, Anderson’s second Dahl adaptation after Fantastic Mr. Fox, stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel and Ben Kingsley.

In an interview with IndieWire, Anderson discussed why he had to partner with Netflix. “I knew Roald Dahl since before we made Fantastic Mr. Fox. 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. 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.”

“Suddenly, in essence, there was nowhere else you could do it since they own it. But beyond it, because it’s a 37-minute movie, it was the perfect place to do it because it’s not really a movie. You know they used to do these BBC things called Play for Today directed by people like Steven Frears and John Schlesinger and Alan Clarke. They were one-hour programs or even less. I kind of envisioned something like that,” Anderson added.

The filmmaker added that such a short film cannot be distributed in cinemas. “They’d have to sell cheaper tickets or do a double feature.”

Henry Sugar is expected to drop on Netflix this fall. Meanwhile, Anderson’s Asteroid City is set to make its debut in limited US theatres today, June 16, before a wider release on June 23.

Notably in September last year, Netflix announced the acquisition of the Roald Dahl Story Company which gave the streaming service access to the full catalog of works from the famed British author. The deal extended a relationship between the two companies that began in 2018 with an initial pact that gave the streamer access to 16 titles for animation adaptations.

Other projects based on Dahl’s works include Taika Waititi and Phil Johnston’s upcoming series based on the world of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. An adaptation of Matilda The Musical dropped earlier this year.