Hollywood News

Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley to Star in Wes Anderson’s Roald Dahl Adaptation

By Anusha Sundar
Benedict Cumberbatch speaking at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Doctor Strange", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California, by Gage Skidmore, licensed under CC, Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic Dev Patel at the Toronto International Film Festival 2011, by Ping Foo, licensed under CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic Ralph Fiennes: Ralph Fiennes at the Gothenburg International Film Festival, Flickr Ben Kingsley: Ben Kingsley speaking at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International, for "The Boxtrolls", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Flickr Wes Anderson: Flickr

Actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley are set to star in an upcoming film directed by Wes Anderson. The feature film will be an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s short story collection The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

The upcoming project is for Netflix, the report adds, although it has not yet been announced officially by the streaming platform.

While Dahl is primarily known for his children’s books, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More consists of seven short stories meant for a slightly older audience. One of the stories revolves around the titular Henry Sugar, who gains the ability to see through things with his eyes closed and predict the future. Cumberbatch will reportedly be portraying this character, and THR also adds that the actor will be playing multiple roles as a ‘link’ to other stories. The roles to be essayed by the other actors are not yet known.

Anderson has written the script and the film’s shooting is set to start in January, in London. It is to be noted that the filmmaker previously adapted the author’s Fantastic Mr. Fox in 2009, as a stop-motion animated comedy film.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More is not the only work of Dahl that is being adapted by Netflix. The streaming service acquired the entire catalogue of Dahl’s works in Fall 2021.

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Earlier, in January 2021, it was announced that Emma Thompson, the Academy Award-winning British actor, and filmmaker Matthew Warchus would be collaborating on the Netflix original film Matilda, based on Dahl’s classic story of the same name. Thompson will be playing the role of cruel school headmistress Miss Trunchbull, while Alisha Weir will essay the titular role of gifted young girl Matilda and Lashana Lynch from Captain Marvel will be playing Miss Honey, the kind school teacher.

However, the THR report notes that Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More adaptation will be the first Dahl project to go on floors for Netflix since it acquired the author’s catalogue.

Anusha Sundar is a Senior Correspondent at Silverscreen India, and can be reached on Twitter at anusha16_ or by email at anusha@silverscreen.in