New Wes Anderson Short Film Gets Netflix Release Date

Abby Jones

August 24, 2023 at 12:53 PM·2 min read

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The post New Wes Anderson Short Film Gets Netflix Release Date appeared first on Consequence.

Netflix has shared the release date for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, a new short film by Wes Anderson adapted from Roald Dahl’s short story of the same name. After its September 1st premiere at the Venice Film Festival, the title will land on streaming Wednesday, September 27th.

The 39-minute-long The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar stars leading man Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, a compulsive gambler who discovers a new method of cheating. Ralph Fiennes will also star in the film as Dahl, while Dev Patel, Sir Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade round out the ensemble cast.

This marks the second time Anderson has brought a Dahl story to the screen, following 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. In an interview with IndieWire earlier this year, he explained that he’d long been wanting to adapt Henry Sugar — the Dahl family had even set it aside for him — but he struggled initially to turn it into a screenplay.

“I knew what I liked in the story was the writing of it, Dahl’s words,” he said. “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.”

He continued: “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’s most recent feature-length film was last June’s Asteroid City.

Editor’s Note: Check out our definitive ranking of Anderson’s filmography…