The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar: Wes Anderson's medium-length film arrives on Netflix at the end of the month

With 'The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,' a four-part anthology based on the collection of short stories of the same title by author Roald Dahl begins on Netflix.

The 40-minute medium-length film directed by Wes Anderson has just premiered at the Venice Film Festival outside of competition and will be globally available on the platform by the end of the month.

Wes Anderson has been in charge of the screenplay for this story about a wealthy man who learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes and then sets out to master the ability to cheat at gambling. Anderson has had this project in mind for two decades without being very clear on how and when he could bring it to life.

"When I was staying at Gipsy House (the Dahl family's house in Buckinghamshire), I had a simultaneous thought, which was, 'I don't know how to do this,' but over the years, the Dahl family (Felicity Dahl and Dahl's grandson) and Luke Kelly reserved the rights to the story for me." The way the original author narrated the story through short stories caught Anderson's attention, and he wanted to follow the same approach, preserving his style to a large extent. The film is a medium-length feature that was never intended to be stretched into a full-length movie. "I wasn't sure if this storytelling method would work for a feature film. It made more sense to me to make these short stories as story shorts."

Just as we recently saw in "Asteroid City" (2023) some of the actors playing multiple characters, Anderson uses this resource again, completing the medium-length film with an unusually small cast for his standards, with Benedict Cumberbatch playing Henry Sugar and Ralph Fiennes as Roald Dahl. Regarding the cast chosen for this first part of the collection, the American filmmaker comments: "Benedict Cumberbatch was a key figure and someone I wanted to work with. I have a little history with Ralph Fiennes, and having him play Dahl was something that convinced me to do it." The cast is rounded out by Ben Kingsley, Rupert Friend, Dev Patel, and Richard Ayoade. "I hadn't worked with Richard Ayoade, but I've known him for years. I've worked with Rupert, of course. He's brilliant in 'The Swan.' I also love Dev. I had tried to work with him before, and this time he said yes, and Ben Kingsley is crucial. It's good to have someone new and legendary at the same time."

Gipsy House, Dahl's writer's house, was recreated with the utmost accuracy using a few borrowed objects from the author's museum. The film's style was inspired by "Swimming To Cambodia" (1987), directed by Jonathan Demme, a cinematic adaptation of Spalding Gray's monologue, where Gray recounts his experiences during the filming of "The Killing Fields" (1984). Anderson explains this reference as follows: "Demme keeps it like a theatrical performance, essentially, with Spalding Gray speaking to the camera, and it's somewhere in between fiction and documentary. The way the transitions between parts happen and the way the story is told, everything is done with theatrical effects and sounds, so I thought, 'Let's make a kind of art film.'"

The other short films or medium-length films that will be part of this anthology are: "The Swan," "The Ratcatcher," and "Poison." 'The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar' will be available on Netflix starting September 27.

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