Out promoting his new film “Asteroid City” which arrives in limited release this Friday, filmmaker Wes Anderson has clarified that his next project is actually a short film – one of several he’s made.
Back when it was announced, the Netflix film was said to be an adaptation of the Roald Dahl anthology collection “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” with four of Dahl’s short stories (including the eponymous one) included in one feature.
It was the first project announced in the wake of Netflix’s acquisition of the Roald Dahl Story Company in September. It would also be Anderson’s second Dahl adaptation following his Oscar-nominated animated feature “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”.
Now, speaking with The Daily Beast, Anderson reveals it isn’t a single feature but a series of multiple Dahl-inspired short films he’s made with ‘Sugar’ being the longest – clocking in at 37 minutes. He adds that there’s good reason for this approach:
“That’s not quite a movie. I did some Roald Dahl short story adaptations. They’re separate from each other; they’re not one thing. But the first one is a longer one, about 36-38 minutes, and so it’s a whole story – it’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.
It’s kind of an unusual form for the storytelling that we do, because my way into it was that I realized that what I liked were his words. The way the stories are told in Roald Dahl’s words.
Just turning it into a movie, you can lose his words, by and large. We decided not to lose his words. When you see it, you’ll see what I mean. We use the words.”
Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Richard Ayoade and Ben Kingsley lend their voices to the project which will have Fiennes playing Roald Dahl himself. At least one of the shorts is expected to premiere this Fall on Netflix.
