“It’s not really a movie”- Wes Anderson drops details about upcoming Netflix project The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

The brilliant Wes Anderson has hardly ever not been a part of the discussion in recent years. With Asteroid City days away, there is also some budding excitement about the veteran filmmaker's upcoming Netflix collaboration, an adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, which is set to premiere in the fall of 2023.

Though there was a lot of anticipation surrounding the film, given that it would be the second time that Wes Anderson would work on a Roald Dahl adaptation, the first being the immensely successful Fantastic Mr. Fox in 2009, the details of this upcoming project were rather blurry.

In a recent interview with IndieWire, the filmmaker revealed that his upcoming project was only 37 minutes long, something that most fans did not see coming. He also explained how he preferred theatre releases, but in this case, he was willing to adjust because the upcoming Netflix film will not really be a "film."

"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," he said.

Anderson also revealed plans for another feature-length film featuring Michael Cera in the near future, much to the excitement of fans.

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Why did Wes Anderson sign up for a Netflix production?

Wes Anderson is among the purists who prefer theatre releases over streaming. But for him, this time, there was no other way to go, as explained by the director himself in the interview.

He revealed how he was planning to do this story for a long time but could not figure out an approach. By the time he did so, the family had sold the rights to the story to Netflix, leaving Anderson with not much of a choice.

"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....But I really couldn’t figure out the approach," he said.

"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," he continued.

In essence, Wes Anderson ultimately collaborated with Netflix out of necessity as he wanted to do this particular story. Hence fans can expect his other upcoming projects to be not based around OTT platforms.

There have been no announcements about the release date of Wes Anderson's upcoming Netflix project. Meanwhile, Asteroid City will release on June 23, 2023, theatrically. To note, its early screenings have already garnered positive attention from critics.