Fresh off his latest cinematic success, the long-delayed The French Dispatch, filmmaker Wes Anderson has set his sights on a new project. According to The Guardian, Anderson will adapt The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, the 1977 short story by author Roald Dahl, into a film for Netflix, which acquired Dahl’s catalog several months ago.
The film will focus on Henry Sugar, a gambler who learns how to see through cards with meditation so that he can set up orphanages with the money he wins. Cumberbatch is set to play the lead role, with Patel and Kingsley joining Fiennes, who previously collaborated with Anderson on his most critically-acclaimed project to date, The Grand Budapest Hotel. Cumberbatch may also play additional roles as a way to link the anthology-style stories together.
This is not Anderson’s first foray into Dahl’s world. He made Fantastic Mr. Fox in 2009, and the stop-motion animated film received considerable buzz and numerous accolades. Anderson made another animated feature, Isle of Dogs, in 2018, and has otherwise stuck to live-action productions like Moonrise Kingdom and The French Dispatch. He has one upcoming film in the pipeline called Asteroid City, featuring a number of his dependable players, including Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Tony Revolori, Fisher Stevens, and Jeffrey Wright.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is just one of a number of Dahl projects in development at Netflix. Taika Waititi is working on two TV series, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Oompa Loompas, and there is an animated series based on the Twits also in process. Emma Thompson is set to star in a musical version of Matilda based on the play, to be directed by Matthew Warchus. Warner Bros. is making a Willy Wonka origin story called Wonka starring Timothée Chalamet, which was set before Netflix bought the rights to Dahl’s works.