Netflix’s all-encompassing deal with the Roald Dahl estate is bearing fruit (insert James and the Giant Peach joke here). The streaming platform already has two Charlie and the Chocolate Factory animated series in the works with Taika Waititi at the helm, and has announced several other animated adaptations as well.
Filmmaker Wes Anderson (Fantastic Mr. Fox, The French Dispatch, Rushmore) is also getting on that Netflix-Roald-Dahl train with a live-action rendition of Dahl’s short story collection, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More. Anderson penned the script and has gotten a pretty stellar cast on board.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dev Patel (The Green Knight, pictured above), Ralph Fiennes (AKA Voldemort), and Ben Kingsley (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) will be joining Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange) in the production. Cumberbatch will play the title story’s protagonist, Henry Sugar, a man who steals a book whose pages reveal how to see through objects and receive visions of the future.
We don’t know yet who Patel, Fiennes, and Kingsley will play, but the other stories in the collection include one about a boy who can talk to animals, a professional pickpocket, and a story about a secret treasure buried deep underground. The collection also includes Dahl’s recounting of how he became a writer. While we have few details about Anderson’s adaptation, we do know that Cumberbatch will play more roles than just Sugar and will be the consistent thread throughout the feature film, which presumably jumps from story to story.
Anderson and the rest of the cast are set to start shooting this month in the U.K., which means that this production is actually happening! No news yet, however, on when the film will make its way to Netflix.
