PremiumThe Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar trailer: Benedict Cumberbatch rolls the dice in Wes Anderson's Roald Dahl adaptation
The short film is set to premiere on Netflix later this month.
Last Updated: 01.53 PM, Sep 15, 2023
Wes Anderson is back after Asteroid City, but on Netflix. The new trailer for his new short film, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, is out, and it features Benedict Cumberbatch as a rich London bachelor. The well-known children's author Roald Dahl wrote a collection of short stories called The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More. Anderson's film is based on these stories. It premiered out of competition at this year's Venice Film Festival to a four-minute standing ovation, and it will be available on Netflix on September 27, 2023.
Inspiration behind The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Talking about the plot, Dahl's Henry Sugar is based on the real-life story of a psychic named Kuda Bux. It's about a gambler who learns how to meditate so he can see through playing cards. Ben Kingsley, Richard Ayoade, Dev Patel, Ralph Fiennes, and Rupert Friend also appear in Anderson's 37-minute colour version, which is based on the book. This is the second time that Anderson has taken one of Dahl's stories and turned it into a movie. In 2009, he did the same thing with Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Wes Anderson's connection with Roald Dahl and the long-awaited project
Earlier, while talking about the film, Anderson told IndieWire that he knew Roald Dahl before making Fantastic Mr. Fox. The filmmaker met the author's wife, Lindsay Dahl, about 20 years ago when they were making The Royal Tenenbaums.
Anderson wanted to do Henry Sugar for a long time. Because they were friends, Dahl saved this story for him. Luke, who is Dahl's grandson, got the torch from Lindsay, and this was ready for the filmmaker. But he couldn't figure out how to go about it. Anderson knew that what he liked most about the story was how it was written, in Dahl's words. But he couldn't figure out the answer, and then all of a sudden he did.
The filmmaker also said that by the time he was ready to shoot the movie, the Dahl family had sold the rights to the entire Roald Dahl Story Company, including Henry Sugar, to Netflix.